


The Fault in our Blood

by md563nq



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst, Anxiety, Depression, Gen, Humor, a lot of dealing with mental illness, but angst with comedy, i might add more as i go, jk but platonic ships, the ships are clickbait, very out of character im sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-07
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-08-29 15:30:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 52,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8495359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/md563nq/pseuds/md563nq
Summary: Seungkwan and Seokmin, two high school kids who pretended to be normal, were suddenly members of an underground faultblood organization. They were freaking out, but can you blame them?





	1. Prologue

Equality is a surrealistic concept, and it has always been. It’s fiction, a thought of those oppressed wish to be reality. Getting equality in society will never happen, as someone will always be left out to fend for themselves. You can’t have everyone fit in the same place without someone slipping out. As soon as you find the slightest off in someone, you pin it against them. That’s survival for the fittest in its finest.

 

In 1924 a nuclear plant exploded just by the north west coast in South Korea and things just hasn’t been the same since. The explosion wasn’t violent enough to evacuate the entire region, just the nearby town was enough. People thought this wasn’t a big deal as there were no direct casualties. Thing is, the newborns of the families who lived close to the nuclear plant weren’t your average children. These kids grew up to possess abilities. Abilities you’d hear about in an X-men comic. 

 

The first wave of these children just grew up with the powers making a couple of headlines in the newspapers and some TV reports and maybe one or two documentaries. The second wave was bigger and started to become an issue, as the youngsters liked how their powers could be used for their advantage and the rest of the population didn’t know how to tackle the issue. Laws were made against people with the genetic mutation and they were restricted from doing the same things as everyone else. Eventually the nickname “faultbloods” was made in their honor. 

 

The Korean government by all means want to keep this issue hush-hush. No medical studies have been made about the mutants and they don’t mean to make any. Not many of them are accepted into highly prestigious universities despite their grades and tend to get low-rank jobs. If they get a job, that is. 

 

Now in 2016, the problem remains. Faultbloods tend to drop out of high school to become drug dealers or gang members, only a few actually get into an okay university and have to work harder than others to build a stable career. To pass as normal in society isn’t hard if you got control of your powers, and a couple of classes for faultbloods to control their powers occur after school hours. A couple of human rights organizations support faultbloods and want them to be equal, but none of their actions have made a lot of improvement.

 

The stigma is still high and equality is far out of reach. How can such a flawed society get fixed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! This is my first fanfiction in a long time, so I'm sorry for being terrible. I've had this idea cooking in my head for weeks now, and finally decided to write it out. Is it okay? : )


	2. Chapter 1

Seungkwan felt anxious. Really, really fucking anxious. He wanted to run home, but his legs were stuck shaking. His stomach was in such a tight ball he thought he would have to claw it out of his body. Yeah, maybe a little bit overdramatic. But he really just wanted to be home in the comfort of his own home, safe under his warm blanket and maybe play through Bolbbalgan4’s album to calm down. He certainly didn’t wanna stand here in a cold alley way in the midst of November, in front of his friend and classmate Lee Seokmin. Who just told him he was a faultblood. Who, by accident, froze part of Seungkwan’s jacket sleeve into ice.

Seungkwan felt anxious, not scared. Anxious. As much as he wanted to run home and pretend this didn’t just happen, he realize he also wanted to stay. Stay? Really? He stood still like a statue and in a war with his own mind, letting Seokmin freak out on his own too.

Seokmin was busy whispering apologies and telling Seungkwan to not tell anyone, how much it would ruin him and his family. How afraid he was as his father would disown him and the entire school would see him as an outcast. But he stopped mumbling when Seungkwan’s voice broke in.

“I’m… Also…” The boy realized he had been staring at Seokmin got what felt like a good minute and blinked the dryness away from his eyes. “I’m… I’m also…. “

He saw how Seokmin’s once tense shoulders now starting to drop, relaxing. His face once twisted in worry now calmed down, only a small frown left now. His eyes grew a little in size. Seungkwan gulped and unfolded his arms from hugging his body, then held forward his left hand with the frozen sleeve. Both boys looked down at Seungkwan’s hand that was trembling a little from the cold.

Suddenly, a fire lit up their faces. A small flame had spread across Seungkwans hand, almost like a lit candle. Calm, almost completely opposite of both teenage boys nerves at the moment. The fire slowly melted down the ice in his sleeve, and Seungkwan heard a sigh of relief from Seokmin.

“Thank God… Oh dude, you have no idea how anxious I was.” The older boy placed a hand on his chest to calm down his beating heart. He leaned back a little and gave Seungkwan some space. The fire died in his hand and both boys looked at each other again, this time with a small smile and a laugh threatening to escape their lips.

Seungkwan and Seokmin had been friends since started high school, but clicked instantly. They were very close, best friends even. The thought of losing each other due to their genetics would really be a nightmare turned into reality.

“I won’t tell anyone, I promise.” Seungkwan said, putting his hands into his pockets in a slight attempt to warm them up as he couldn’t flaunt a fire like that, despite how dark the alley was. Seokmin’s smile grew and he was about to say something, but was caught off by a voice from the other end of the alley.

“Wow, what a show.” A couple of slow claps, and a person appeared from the darkest shadows of the alley. Seungkwan and Seokmin felt their hearts beat at their throats when they saw a guy with bleached hair walk up to them. It’s not like he was tall and brooding, but his aura and just the fact that he saw Seungkwan summon fire on his hand was terrifying enough. “Unfortunately I can’t promise I won’t tell anyone.”

This time, Seungkwan swallowed his fear. Who was this to come and threaten them like this? Was this a sick joke?

“Who will believe you? Do you really think people will take you seriously when you got no proof?” Two faultbloods against one stranger didn’t seem too bad on the high school students part. The stranger didn’t seem like he could pull up much of a fight either, and Seokmin had gone to boxing before. If they really had to defend themselves, they could. That was a good plan, until the stranger chuckled and put his hands on his hips.

“Vernon.” The stranger said, and another guy came up, standing half a meter away from the guy with bleached hair. This _‘Vernon’_ guy held a camera. A small red light was on. How could they be so stupid and not look through their surroundings? Seokmin wanted to blame himself but instead thought of excuses as they were too much in a shock, too much fear and anxiety to even think about some weirdos filming in an alleyway.

“Thanks to your little show, I bet your school will be pleased so see such talented kids attending their classes.” The guy with bleached hair said. By now, Vernon was in the process of shutting down the camera. This was bad. Seungkwan realized they both still wore their school uniforms and would be very visible in the video, and their faces as well after that flame lit it up. Shit, shit, shit. Running home and hiding under his blanket didn’t sound like a had idea anymore, but with that video footage… It had to get removed. This had to be a prank. Why would those strangers threaten two high school kids like that? Where they working for the government or something?

As if reading Seungkwan’s mind, Seokmin spoke up, even though he sounded like he was about to shit himself in fear; “Why are you doing this? What do you gain from blackmail material?”

Vernon and the other guy looked at each other, then the guy spoke up. “Well… Think of this as you have two options.”

Their fears were confirmed as he continued. “You could either join our organisation, join our cause. If you do that we’ll keep it a secret.”

Seungkwan wanted to protest.

“Or we could let the principal of your school know that the two of you are faultbloods.” The guy with bleached hair crossed his arms and rested his bodyweight on one leg, still smirking in a mocking, yet scary, manner. He turned to face Seokmin. “Wouldn’t that be a pity, if you father disowned you?”

Seokmins face turned three shades paler than it already was, and Seungkwan felt like he boiled in anger.

“What kind of organisation? Are you some human trafficking group? Drugs? We’re not going to-” Seungkwan realized his voice was rising the more words he spat out. The shorter guy, who still was nameless, merely held a finger up to his own lips. That silenced Seungkwan well.

“We won’t harm you.” for the first time, the boys heard the Vernon guy speak. His voice was a lot more comforting than his friend’s. “If you join us so we can talk more privately, we’d like to discuss everything with you.”

The high schoolers felt something more genuine in Vernon. As if he didn’t wanna manipulate the boys. They almost fell for it. Seungkwan looked between Vernon and the other guy, then back to Seokmin who looked back at him. They had a silent discussion for a couple of seconds before nodding.

“Alright. But no monkey business.” Seungkwan muttered and followed the others as they turned to walk back into the darkness. Fuck, he was terrified. He tried to make himself feel secure with the thought that he had Seokmin. Ice and fire could work out well in combat, right? Seokmin is good at boxing, right? Who was he kidding, that guy barely had any muscle in his body how in the world could he tackle down _anyone?_ Seungkwan felt his body grow more cold the darker it got, and the further away from the light they were.

Eventually, the group reached a big, black van. Great. Fucking splendid. If just the two decided to go to cram school instead of messing around in town. The nameless guy hopped in the van first, then Vernon stopped and stood by the entrance, making sure Seokmin and Seungkwan would get in and not run away. Seungkwan knew this, but also knew his mom told him to not get in a van with strangers. Even though they didn’t have candy, they had a video that could ruin their lives. Seokmin got in first, then Seungkwan. Vernon followed and closed the door.

 

Seokmin was immediately reminded of Doctor Who, where that blue phone box that was super small actually turned out to be a lot bigger on the inside. He was surprised there wasn’t a pool in there. There were a few more people in there, a lanky skinny guy with a death glare and earrings, a taller one with a soft face and black bob cut and a brunette in the driver's seat. Seokmin didn’t dare to look around, mainly looking at the hands that were tight fists in his lap. Seungkwan was more of a daredevil and actually looked between the unnamed guy and Vernon for some explanation.

“I’m Woozi.” The once nameless guy finally addressed his name. A funky name in Seungkwan’s opinion. Then again, Vernon wasn’t very common either. The light was a lot better in the parked van and he could finally make out the features of everyone in the van. Vernon looked like he was of mixed race with a sharp jaw and hazel eyes, and Woozi had more slanted eyes and a surprisingly youthful appearance compared to how threatening he appeared just minutes before. Woozi pointed his finger to one side, the opposite of Seungkwan and Seokmin. “And this is Jeonghan and The8.”

Seungkwan and Seokmin looked over to be greeted by the two strangers who already were in the van. They eventually figured out who was Jeonghan and who was The8, judging by what name they reacted tho. What kind of name was The8 though? Seungkwan got more and more confused, but also more scared. Was this really a gang?

“You might already know this is Vernon.” Woozi spoke up again, turning his head slightly to Vernon before going back to the high schoolers. “So I’ll just go straight to the point.”

He leaned forward in his seat, elbows resting on knees, hands well-knit together. His expression wasn’t as mocking anymore, but a slight smile was still painted across an overall serious expression. The scared duo noticed that the Jeonghan guy has crossed his legs and rested his chin on his palm, while The8 started leaning back in his seat, playing around with his thin fingers.

“We’re not an organisation against faultbloods.” Hearing those words were a shock, but not convincing enough. “We’re, believe it or not, actually an organisation working in favor of faultbloods.”

Seungkwan rose a brow, looking confused. Woozi answered his confusion, “We’re in the organisation Seventeen, an underground group fighting for faultbloods equality in society.”

Seokmin seemed to like every word that came out of Woozi’s mouth as his figure grew more relaxed and his hands weren’t as tightly held together. Seungkwan has his questions answered, but still had a hard time believing it.

“If you join us, we can help you. Make sure you’re safe and still pretend like everything's normal.” By this point, Seokmin was sold. Seungkwan eyed him and hit his upper lip. Woozi noticed this.

“Need more convincing?” Woozi asked, straightening his back a little as he made his posture more upright. Seungkwan waited. “It’s pretty much a win/win situation. You join us, we protect you. You’re loyal to us, we’re loyal to you. You work for us and we work for you.”

“I’m still not buying it.” Seungkwan said after glancing over at Seokmin. “Why should I join some underground gang that threatened to blackmail me and my friend? And put my trust in them?”

His voice continued to grow and he felt himself heat up. “I’m not gonna be manipulated into an illegal group like this-”

Seungkwan stopped as he felt something cold and hard brushing its way past his fringe and pressed up to his forehead. He was suddenly cooled down again and glanced over to tee the Jeonghan guy press a gun against his head. A gun! What kind of equality seeking group _carry guns_?? Jeonghan didn’t seem to hesitate to shoot, so Seungkwan decided he’d rather stay quiet than let his brain spill all over the van. He suddenly realized how small the van was, how his thighs were touching Seokmin’s. How Jeonghans arm didn’t have to be fully outstretched to press a fun against him. Seungkwan took a deep, shaky breath and turned to Seokmin who tried to talk to him.

“Think about it, Kwan. They’re a group that promise to protect us! What if they’re just like us and don’t actually want to exploit us?” His classmate said. Seungkwan grew bitter over how easily persuaded his best friend was, but in a way it helped him agree too. Seungkwan stayed quiet for a bit, then turned to Woozi again.

“Is it true? Are you also faultbloods?” Seungkwan said, feeling less and less pressure on his forehead. Woozi nodded.

“Yes. Most of us are faultbloods.” Woozi looked over at The8, who hadn’t really done all to much except playing with his own thumbs. The8 looked back at Woozi, then held the most intense form of eye contact with Seungkwan and Seokmin. He placed his right hand against his chest and soon enough, his hand went through his body.

“The8 has the power of intangibility. I can manipulate the air.” Woozi explained as The8 took out his hand from his insides. No hole, not even on his clothes. That would look like a sick party trick if they were teenagers at a party, drowning in alcohol. But they’re not and instead Seokmin felt his own insides threatening to throw up. He would rather see some cool air trick than that.

“So what do you say? You in?” Woozi asked. “As I said, we’ll be loyal to you if you’re loyal to us.”

Seungkwan didn’t realize he has grasped onto Seokmin’s hand. It must’ve happened when a gun was shoved up against his skull. Nonetheless, the boys looked at each other, having another silent conversation before turning to Woozi and nodding.

“We’re in.” Seokmin said. The entire atmosphere seemed to ease a little when Woozi’s once semi threatening smile now turned more genuine.

“Good. I’m glad to hear it.” Woozi said. He leaned forward and held out his hand to shake with the boys. “What were your named again? I believe I missed it.”

“Seokmin. Lee Seokmin.” He was the first to shake Woozi’s hand.

“Boo Seungkwan.” Seungkwan then grasped Woozi’s hand, feeling his cold fingers press against his palm a little uncomfortably.

“Nice to meet you, kids.” Woozi said, drawing his hand back and knitting his eyebrows together. “Fire manipulation, right?”

He aimed the question at Seungkwan, and he nodded. Woozi then turned to Seokmin, in which he stuttered out: “Ah, ice.”

Woozi nodded and smirked. “Alright. Seokmin and Seungkwan, we’ll talk more comfortably about the entire organisation once the leader is back in town, but first I’d like to give you trainers already.”

Leader? Trainers? Seungkwan felt a little confused as he thought Woozi was the leader. But apparently he was wrong. Maybe a high ranking in the group? He seemed to have more power in the room, or the van, than the others.

“Seokmin, you’ll be training with Wonwoo. He’s not here, but he’s a good guy. He’ll teach you well.” Seokmin glanced over at the guy in the driver’s seat, without getting much of a reaction. The guy seemed like he was busy looking at the wall or something. He turned back and nodded at Woozi.

“And Seungkwan…” Woozi inhaled, exhaled and glanced to the other side of the van. “Jeonghan will be your trainer.”

Seungkwan felt his face twitch. What? The guy that held a gun up in his head? He wanted to protest but felt the cold gun hit him in the head. So instead of of complaining about the seemingly psychopath being his trainer, he whined at what his psychopath trainer just did. He moved a hand up to rub the area the gun hit, heaving Jeonghan laugh.

“You’re my _bitch_ now! You hear that?” Jeonghan said, his voice sounding surprisingly sweet and soft compared to what words he spat out. The gun hit Seungkwan’s head again and Jeonghan kept giggling. Luckily this didn’t hurt as much as last time and Jeonghan stopped abusing Seungkwan’s head after that. He really didn’t want to have Jeonghan as his trainer, whatever that was.

“Your trainers will teach you how to control your powers and a couple of simple fighting techniques for self defence, not much else.” Woozi said, glancing at Jeonghan who had dropped the gun and was pinching Seungkwan’s cheeks.

“We’ll see you tomorrow. Pack your things and meet us at the Yeongdeungpo Station 12pm tomorrow.” Woozi said, but soon cut off.

“Wait, pack our things? What do you mean?” Seokmin was now the one holding suspicion.

“What’d you expect? To balance family, school and Seventeen? Nah fam.” Jeonghan finally stopped bruising Seungkwan and sat back next to The8, quick to wrap an arm around the other boy’s shoulders. “That’s not how it works out.”

Woozi was quick to regain control of the conversation. “There’s a lot of work put into our organisation. All Seventeen members live under the same roof. You’ll have to fake a disappearance, we’ll help you with that. Transfer schools and move into our headquarters.”

Now the two seemed more reluctant to do this. Seungkwan, still holding Seokmin’s hand and noticing his palm has become pretty sweaty, squeezed Seokmin’s hand.

“Don’t worry. Just pack a suitcase and meet us tomorrow. We’ll bring out the news to your families and your schools.” The two were greeted with cold air suddenly. The car door was opened. Seungkwan had so many questions, but it seemed like Woozi didn’t want to talk more. And after having a gun way too close to his personal space more than once, he’d be more than happy to just obey and not actually get himself shot.

The high schoolers moved out of the van, hearing Vernon laugh. “ _‘I can’t promise I’ll keep it a secret?’_ Dude that’s so tacky.”

“Shut it, Chwe.” Was the last thing they heard and the van door closed.

The two walked away from the van in silence, then stopped as they heard the van drive off. Seungkwan tried to see who drove, the guy who was quiet and didn’t speak once. But the wan was already quite a distance away. He sighed and turned back to walk with Seokmin, back to where this all started. Then home. Seungkwan wanted to hide under his blanket for a year now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said... very ooc... Anyway, this story is pretty slowbuild in order for everyone to warm up for the characters. Please be patient! 
> 
> Another note: I'm not going to update this regularly as I'm /drowning/ in school work (why did i decide to write a fanfiction then) but i have about 3 chapters done and ready to post so.. I'll tease with that while i try to stress up a fourth chapter lol... Thanks for reading!!


	3. Chapter 2

The next day Seokmin and Seungkwan were more tense than usual. They stuck to each other as if someone had put them together with glue. Having quiet conversations with each other. When a classmate would ask if something was wrong, they’d just laugh and make up a bad excuse. People decided to shrug it off, deciding it was probably because they skipped cram school and has a test today. Their problem, their loss. 

The duo were okay with that, obviously having other things in mind. The entire day went by with a blur. And once the last class was over, Seungkwan and Seokmin knew that they had to get to business. No, they weren’t gonna defeat the huns. But they might as well do that, that sounded a lot easier than all the shit Woozi spat out the day before.

 

Seokmin was in the midst of packing silently, trying to blast music to make it seem like he was fooling around in his room as usual. As soon as he heard footsteps too close to his door, he worked in Sonic speed to hide the suitcase under his bed. His feet placed in front of the suitcase, he placed his butt on the bed and sat innocently in front of the opening door. Big Bang continues to blast from his laptop and his fingers found themselves to be uncomfortable in between each other as his hands were folded together. 

His mom stood by the doorframe, her comforting scent filling the room. She seemed to be baking, as there was flour a little here and there on her clothes and face.

“Still sad you didn’t get to go to their latest concert?” His mother asked, wearing a gentle smile. It was true Seokmin held an extreme grudge against his school for deciding to have a really important exam the day after Big Bangs concert that was to kick off a new Asia tour. He planned on ditching and go to the concert, but 30% of his grade went to that exam alone. Life is cruel.

Seokmin shook his head innocently. “I just wanna appreciate their music a little.”  
  
His mother laughed and walked over to him. She sat next to him in the bed, holding her hand on the other side of his head and pressing her lips against the other. Seokmin felt bad for wishing she didn’t brush her bare foot against the suitcase. He felt bad for having a tight knot in his stomach and wanting to swallow his tears. He really wanted to cry in her arms one last time. His mom seemed to notice this as she began rocking him softly, still kissing the crown of his head. Despite the fact that _‘Monster’_ was being blasted in the room, she wouldn’t let that ruin their moment. Seokmin sighed, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders as he allowed tears to fall. Fuck, this was a lot harder than he expected. He tried to keep the mindset of how hard it ward to tiptoe around his dad whenever he did anything, how he was against faultbloods and wanted them all to disappear. He tried to remember that his mother wasn’t a faultblood and couldn’t relate. He would be safer in Seventeen.

Seokmin closed his eyes and lightly brushed his own feet against the suitcase, drowning in his mom’s excuses about how she’s sorry he couldn’t attend the concert.

 

Seungkwan on the other hand, didn’t have G-Dragon screaming from his laptop while his mom comforted him. He had speed packed and hid his suitcase in his closet, and was not pretending like nothing was happening as he was peeling a tangerine. His mom was busy in the kitchen and his sisters were watching TV. Technically he was watching TV too, but the tangerine was more important. He felt a buzz in his pocket and fished after his phone, only to see a text from an unknown number. He rose his brow and unlocked the message, feeling like he already got sweaty.

_“Hey Seungkwan._

_Remember,_

_Yeongdeungpo Station_

_12pm tonight_

_Okay?”_

“Whats up, Kwannie? Your girlfriend broke up with you?” Seungkwan looked up from his phone to see one of his sisters snicker at him, the other making a fake sad expression while pretending to wipe tears from her face. He mumbled curses their way and tucked his phone back into his pocket, returning to his tangerine.  
  
“No, it was the doctor saying they’re sorry your surgery failed and I have to look at you like this.” Seungkwan got hit by a pillow and his mom had to intervene in the sibling fight. His mom scolded him for making fun of his sisters and scolded his sisters for making fun of Seungkwan. Like always. Despite the three of them being way too old to bicker like this, it had kind of grown into routine. 

Anyway, the tangerine got eaten. Seungkwan’s hands smell like tangerine. When he cleaned up the tangerine skin he realized how much he was gonna miss this. Despite him honest to God wanting to rip his sisters’ hairs from their heads, he would miss all of them. He’d miss his mom and his dad who always were so supportive of him. While dumping the skin of the citrus fruit into the trashbin Seungkwan glanced at the clock. Five more hours until he had to be at the station. The aftertaste of the tangerine made him feel sick suddenly and he went to wash the juice of the fruit off his fingers.

Routine was one of Seungkwan’s favorite things. Waking up, regretting he woke up, go to school, laughing with Seokmin about an inside joke, go to cram school, go back home, do homework, regretting life choices and wanting to drop out of high school, fighting sisters, getting scolded, eat dinner, go to sleep and repeat.

All those routines were to be shattered. Or technically, it shattered yesterday when he and Seokmin decided not to go to cram school. It shattered when he didn’t have to hide the fact that he was a faultblood. When Woozi and Vernon came…  
  
Seungkwan realized he had been picking at his food for the last couple of minutes, ignoring his dad’s questions and biting into his upper lip. He blinked and looked up to see his sisters stare at him. Ah, they were worried about him. Seungkwan grimaced at them, they grimaced back and returned to their food. He noticed his parents did too. Seungkwan lifted his spoon up to his mouth and ate, pretending there still was a routine.

 

Seungkwan wore two scarves and a hat. One scarf because he was cold, the other for disguise. The hat because he liked it and it was his favorite. He stopped by the train station, as told to him. Looking around, he saw some late train travellers walk in and out of the station. The last train would go a couple of minutes past midnight so Seungkwan could be slightly comforted in blending in with society like this one last time. For all he knows, he might die as soon as he enters those ‘headquartes’. If Jeonghan was one of the least batshit members, that is.

“Hey, Kwan!” Seungkwan looked around to see Seokmin walk up to him with his own suitcase in hand. How Seokmin knew it was him despite wearing so much covering his head was a mystery he’ll never get the answer of, but it wasn’t really a big problem at the moment.  
  
“Hey…” Seungkwan scanned him, noticing how relaxed Seokmin looked. He smiled brightly as if what happened yesterday didn’t completely mind scar him. Seungkwan looked around to make sure no classmates were around after Seokmin’s not-so-subtle greeting. Seungkwan looked back at Seokmin with a small frown. “You seem really relaxed.”  
  
“Ah, yeah.” Seokmin scratched his neck, which made Seungkwan realize he wasn’t wearing a scarf. After the two revealed to each other they were part of the oppressed society with genetic mutations, Seungkwan realized Seokmin handled the cold a lot better than him. While Seungkwan got colds easily and would complain at September winds being the death of him, Seokmin hadn’t even worn gloves during snow days. Wow, that explained a lot.

“How much time to we got left?” Seungkwan asked and looked around for a clock. Seokmin answered his question while moving his suitcase closer to Seungkwan’s.  
  
“Five minutes.” The two looked around for the black van, Seungkwan hoping it would be in time because the van had seat warmers and Seokmin not being bothered at all by the cold. 

“...So…” Seokmin broke the silence after waiting for the van that still hadn’t appeared. “Taeyeon is gonna release a new song tomorrow.”  
  
“What?” Seungkwan completely forgot. He was so excited for her new song but after what happened of recent, he’d really forgotten. Seungkwan whined, hoping he had time to stream the song tomorrow. Whatever tomorrow might bring, that is.  
  
“Yeah, the trailer looked pretty cool.” Seokmin patted Seungkwan’s shoulder, completely understanding his pain. The two sighed in unison and looked ahead, only to see the van driving up to them. The same driver as yesterday was there, as it seemed. The door opened and Woozi hopped out with Vernon following suit. 

“Looks like you two didn’t chicken out after all.” Vernon said, chuckling as he took their suitcases. Seungkwan thought that if Woozi said it it would’ve been a threat, but Vernon sounded more relaxed and made the situation seem lighter.  
  
“Wait, shouldn’t we take those?” Seokmin asked, attempting to reclaim his suitcase. Vernon shook his head and rolled both of them back to the van, telling them not to worry.

Woozi seemed busy having his hands in his pockets and puffing his cheeks at the cold, deflating said cheeks as soon as they appeared. Seungkwan figured he didn’t like the cold either. Or it was because his black dress shirt wasn’t made of the thickest material. Once Vernon got the suitcases into the van, he got back in. Woozi didn’t seem to have time to wait for the others to get their butts in, so he went in after Vernon. Seokmin and Seungkwan followed soon after. It took Seokmin a good minute before he closed the door properly.

The drive wasn’t too quiet as Woozi and Vernon both engaged in conversation with them, today feeling a lot less threatening as they did yesterday. Seungkwan didn’t feel as tense as before either, especially since the seat warmer warmed him nicely. But he still didn’t let down his guard. He still had that sickening feeling in his stomach. He snuck out from home once everyone had fallen asleep, feeling anxiety eat him from the inside. But looking at how the three others laughed at whatever joke Vernon told to break the ice, he guessed he really had to start accepting these new people. He had to accept being a member of Seventeen, whatever that meant. Seungkwan looked down at his lap, trying to swallow his anxiety and looked over at the driver. It was the same brunette hair at least. Was this guy a member? Or was he just their driver? How big was the organisation anyway? 

As if to be a mindreader, Woozi turned his attention to Seungkwan. “When Coups comes back, we’ll give you more information and answer your questions properly. I would if I could, but he’s way better at explaining things.”

Seungkwan noted the van quieted down a little as Vernon and Seokmin listened in. Woozi continued. “And I guess… You’ve been through a lot since yesterday, maybe you need some time to let things calm down so the information actually sinks in. Coups is better at explaining stuff and giving speeches.”  
  
When Seokmin and Seungkwan thought Woozi was starting to express himself nicely, they both had that idea crushed as quickly as it was built after that minor diss. Seungkwan at least felt his hopeful expression crack and his eyebrow twitch.

“Haha, yeah man! Coups gives off the best speeches!” Vernon laughed, then smacking Woozi’s shoulder softly. “Hey remember when he did that pep talk to us that was totally ripped off _‘Watership Down’_?” 

While Seokmin and Seungkwan were confused, Woozi seemed to understand as he chuckled lightly. Vernon continued, “Ah… That really lifted my spirit. Too bad you and Hoshi told him he would be sued for copyright…”  
  
Seokmin and Seungkwan shared a look, then looked back at the two who seemed to be in their own world. Coups… Hoshi… Seungkwan felt like he got more questions than answers, but decided that letting it pass until this Coups guy came back… Whatever he had to come back from.  
  
“So… When is... Coups... Coming back?” Seungkwan asked, confused by his own question. Woozi pressed his lips together and thought for a bit.  
  
“A couple of days I think. A week more maybe.” He then shrugged. “I’m not sure.”  
  
A week. A week seemed like enough time for him to realize what a 180 turn his life has taken and how Jesus would probably never be in his favour from now on. He nodded, deciding to ask another question.  
  
“What is he doing?... Vacation?” Seungkwan stuttered on his words as he realized he started to pick them carefully. He read both Woozi and Vernons expressions carefully, but realizing soon that the only thing that changed with Woozi’s face was whether he smiled or not. Vernon was more obvious, and judging by his face it didn’t seem like Seungkwan pressed the wrong button yet.

“Well…” Vernon itched his eyebrow, “He’s on a mission with some other members.”  
  
A simple, vauge answer. Too cauge. Seungkwan wanted whine about the cauge answer. But he had to suck it in and take it. One week until he met the big bad boss, then he should be able to ask all the questions he had, right?

“We’re here.” a new voice broke in, and the four realized the van had stopped. Seungkwan looked over to see the driver glance back at them. It was too dark to see outside the windows, so Seungkwan focused more on the brunette.  
  
“Thanks Mingyu.” Woozi said, opening the door of the van and hopped out. Mingyu?  
  
Seungkwan got out of the van after everyone else had left and now it was his time to struggle with closing the van door. He noticed that the other guys were talking together while he was trying for the third time to close that goddamn door.  
  
“Yeah, you’ll be rooming with me and Mingyu. So follow us.” Seungkwan thanked God the door didn’t close successfully as he suddenly remembered the suitcases. He leaned in the van and got the the suitcases out before the others noticed he was about to forget them. Thankfully the Mingyu guy came up to Seungkwan when he was going to close the van door one more time before considering burning the van down.

“Need help?” He asked closing the door easily. Seungkwan smiled, half of it being genuine because he was thankful for the help, the other half being as he watched his soul leave his body right then and there.

Seungkwan took a moment to study Mingyu. He was tall and brooding, but expression not as scary as Woozi. Brown hair, big hands. If he met Mingyu in that alley way yesterday, he knew for sure his pants would’ve been shat in.

“So, all four of us will be roommates?” Seokmin asked, looking at the building. A small mansion-like house in the middle of the forest. It seemed to be two floors. Obviously this wouldn’t be built for them so they must’ve taken over an abandoned building. It kind of reminded Seungkwan of a house straight out of a horror movie. He hoped it was because it was dark and when the sun came up the house would be in pastels and whatever satanic carvings were by the door was a pink sticker of a cat.

“Yeah. I got the top bunk while Mingyu got bottom, so there’s an empty bunk bed for you to to fight over.” Vernon said, heading into the mansion that screamed little girls who died of demonic possession. Woozi had gone in a long time ago and Seungkwan thought his end truly was near. Seokmin walked in with his suitcase, saying something about how he’d want top bunk. Mingyu looked over his shoulder at Seungkwan before going into the house.

Seungkwan stood there, alone with his suitcase. He looked up at the house another time feeling the cold wind try to push him away from the house. He sighed and walked in, greeted with light. To mention that Woozi had turned a couple of lights on in the house wasn’t important in Seungkwan’s book, as he liked the drama he had built up. But the inside of the house looked a lot better than the outside. He was pleasantly surprised. The lights were coming from lamps. Actual lamps! He thought it would be candles… And not crooked paintings of dead westerners on the walls or chapped off paint. The inside looked way too different from the outside. It looked incredibly modern with comfortable couches, white doors and an open kitchen with a kitchen island. The stairs to the second floor were just by the entrance and judging by the noise coming from there, he guessed that’s where he’s supposed to be. He heard Seokmin’s voice from upstairs and his thoughts were confirmed. As he carried his suitcase up he looked down and saw a flight of stairs to down. So they had something underground too?

Seungkwan nodded to himself and went up the stairs, seeing a hallway with a bunch of closed doors, one at the far end open. He carefully rolled his suitcase down to the open door, careful not to wake anyone up. Not because he was mindful, but because he remembered Jeonghan lived here. He really didn’t want to bruise more of his body.

Once by the doorframe of his new room, in his new home, he was quite happy to see Seokmin really did take the top bunk. Seungkwan’s fear of highs didn’t have to be tested tonight. He rolled the suitcases by his new bed and looked over to see Mingyu already sound asleep. What? Didn’t they get home like four seconds ago? Maybe it was a tiring day for Mingyu as well as it was for Seungkwan and Seokmin.

Seungkwan looked around for Vernon but guessed he was in the bathroom attached to their room. Hopefully it was a bathroom, as all he saw was a closed door with light shining through the cracks. If it was some walk-in closet with cursed dolls he might jump out the window.

Instead of letting his imagination get to him he opened his suitcase and changed immediately. Completely forgetting his phone in his jacket pocket, he heard as it dropped to the floor. Seungkwan took off his jacket, throwing it over his suitcase and checked the phone for any damage. None, luckily. He checked the time and it was well into 1am, closing to 2am. Reality hit him as his phone closes again. Guilt struck him like lightning and first then he realized Seokmin had tried to talk to him.  
  
“Is something wrong, Kwan?” Seokmin looked down at him from his bed, already clad in pajamas. Seungkwan looked up and soon they had a mutual understanding because they shared the guilt.

“We’ll deal with it tomorrow, okay? You’ve gone through a lot and tomorrow we’ll try to sort everything out.” For a moment, Seungkwan thought Seokmin looked very tired. Emotionally exhausted even. Seungkwan nodded and the door to the bathroom opened, Vernon exiting. Now wearing pajamas that consisted of questionable pastel colored shorts and a Nirvana shirt, he threw a peace sign Seungkwan’s way.

“He’s right man, sleep does wonders.” he said as he climbed up the small stairs to his bed, shutting off the light in the bathroom before. Seungkwan nodded, finishing his change of outfit before turning off the light in the room. He sat on his bed, already missing home. Damn, this blanket wasn’t warm and comfortable. He wanted to talk with the others, but felt like they’d be better of sleeping now. So he sighed and looked out the window to be greeted by moonlight. All sorts of thoughts and feelings were running around in his mind and he just felt the anxiety and guilt grow.

Seungkwan didn’t get any sleep that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no self control.... Anyway I wanted to post this chapter already...... I need to write haha.....


	4. Chapter 3

Unlike Seungkwan, Seokmin slept. Despite the fact that he woke up every hour with the same nightmare replaying, he slept. Before he knew it the sun was up. While he was thankful, he also dreaded what the day was going to bring him.

He sat on Seungkwan’s bed, with the younger boy developing dark circles under his eyes. Both of their phones buzzed with text messages and calls, but Vernon had told them not to reply. Ignore it. So instead they drew their attention to the mixed boy who attempted to wake up Mingyu. It looked like quite some work, Mingyu really slept like a rock. If Vernon hadn’t told them Mingyu was one of the heaviest sleepers on the planet, they would’ve thought he was in a coma. Finally the boys heard a whine coming from the 186cm log. Seungkwan sighed and Seokmin chuckled while Vernon reached for a high five from both of them.   
  
“Let me sleep more…” Mingyu mumbled, hugging his pillow while keeping his eyes shut.   
  
“Nah man, you have a job today.” Vernon said, getting help from Seokmin to pull the pillow away from the giant puppy. The word ‘job’ somehow sent a shiver down Seungkwan’s spine. What kind of job? His theory that Seventeen was a bunch of drug smugglers was still alive and it made him afraid. Mingyu whined more but eventually stopped as the smell of food had reached their room. The door to their room had been open the last hour for whatever reason Vernon had and now they understood why. Slowly but surely, Mingyu’s grip on the pillow loosened and he sat up. His bed hair almost covered his eyes and if he didn’t have an intimidating posture he’d really look like a cute puppy.

Still wearing his pajamas and mumbling about breakfast, Mingyu hurried out the room and down the hall. Seungkwan looked at the entire scene with wide eyes.

“Wonwoo’s pancakes are really good and Jeonghan is a binge eater.” Vernon chuckled at Seungkwan's confused expression and walked with the two newbies down to the kitchen. Seokmin noticed his steps were quicker than usual, mostly because he was curious how his trainer looked. If he made pancakes he was a nice guy, right? They smelled pretty good too… So an extra nice guy? He felt a little anxious as he walked down the stairs with the others, the smell of food growing stronger.   
  
The house seemed a lot more comforting to look at when it wasn’t dark outside. It almost looked like something out of an Ikea magazine, if you looked away from the fact that belongings were scattered all over the place. He saw bags, shoes and jackets by the entrance. Then some more clothes in the livingroom and some newspapers, letters and magazines… Seokmin really wanted to clean the living room up but decided to fight his urges and go into the kitchen, greeted by people eating breakfast by the kitchen island. He knew some of the faces in there, if not all. Mingyu had gotten himself a plate of pancakes, Woozi was drinking a cup off coffee and The8 was eating an apple while looking over at Jeonghan who talked to someone he hadn’t seen before.

Was that Wonwoo? Seokmin found himself following Seungkwan and Vernon while he tried to round the kitchen island to get a better look at the new person. He accidentally bumped into Seungkwan though. Embarrassing.   
  
“Oh, sorry man!” Seokmin said, placing his hand on Seungkwan’s shoulder. He didn’t get a reply though. Confused, he tried to figure out what made Seungkwan so frozen in place. He then turned to look on the other side of the table to see Jeonghan and the stranger look at them. Jeonghan wore an almost frightening smirk while his eyes seemed to carry a sparkle of fondness.

“Kwannie!” he sang with his sweet voice, cupping his cheeks in his hands. “I’m so happy you’re here! We’re gonna have so much fun today.”

Seokmin found himself not really minding the situation too much, as the others didn’t seem to bother either. Woozi had gotten a new cup of coffee, Vernon was munching on pancakes next to Mingyu and The8 would only glance at them occasionally. It was weird, felt weird. It felt as if everyone were functioning as normal, as if nothing was wrong. Everything looked yellow, warm. Seokmin felt blue, cold and detached from the rest in the room. His mouth felt dry and vision grew blurry.

Instead of moping though, he took the liberty to look over at the guy he assumed was Wonwoo. ‘Wonwoo’ was, unexpectedly, looking down at his lap. Seokmin expected him to look between Jeonghan and Seungkwan and maybe make a snarky comment or something, something he’d do. Instead, he looked down on his lap. Dark hair falling softly over his ears and eyebrows, mouth not shut into an uncomfortable line and eyes occasionally blinking softly. Despite his broad shoulders and hard cheekbones, he didn’t seem like a scary type of guy. It might also comfort Seokmin when he saw the dough and flour on Wonwoo’s black t-shirt. He was glad his trainer wouldn’t be Jeonghan, but also curious how he actually was. Eventually, slowly and relaxed, Wonwoo looked up to face Seokmin. Seokmin smiled.

“You’re Wonwoo, right?” He asked, noticing the positive reaction he got. He felt himself melt into the room and into the entire situation as Wonwoo nodded his head and Woozi finally took the coffee cup away from his mouth and placed it down on the table.  
  
“You recall I mentioned him being your trainer, right?” Woozi asked, earning a nod from Seokmin. Wonwoo seemed to light up a little, realizing who Seokmin was now.   
  
“Great, today you and Seungkwan will have your first training session.” Now, Jeonghan and Seungkwan were listening too. Mingyu, Vernon and The8 probably did as well, he didn’t think of turning his head to check. “I’ll lead you downstairs to the training rooms, it’s not easy to find around the first time.”   
  
Now Seokmin was intrigued. Training rooms? Plural? And not easy to find around? Seokmin wondered how big ‘downstairs’ was now. This house looked pretty normal, but maybe there was an underground building that didn’t have as pure of an appearance. His train of thought was eventually dropped as he finally sat down on a vacant stool close to him and picked up an apple from the fruit bowl on the table. As he munched on the apple and Seungkwan has done the same, Seungkwan asked:   
  
“By the way, who sent those texts yesterday? I mean… I’m guessing it was within the room… But how did you get my number?” Seungkwan asked, looking at Woozi in hope for answers. Seokmin felt familiarity in his words as he did get a text from a stranger, even though it was just a reminder to be at the trainstation.   
  
“It wasn’t that hard to get your personal information.” it was almost scary how casually Woozi talked, moving the coffee cup back up to his mouth and sipped. “Childsplay.”

The two boys had shivers running down their spines but before they would say anything, Woozi spoke up again.

“You haven’t tried to message or call anyone, right?” he looked so serious, even the tone in his voice managed to make everyone in the room rid their sarcastic comments and jokes. Both Seokmin and Seungkwan shook their heads, Seungkwan explaining how Vernon advised them not to do so. Woozi nodded, his expression gradually loosening up.

“Good, it wouldn’t have done anything either way.” Now they were confused. What was Woozi saying? “When we messaged you we hacked into your phones so not only is messaging other numbers impossible, but tracking your phones is as well.”  
  
Seokmin glanced over at Seungkwan, suddenly understanding. If their families were worried about them they’d most likely make a missing person report. The first thing they’d do was try to traced them with help from the boys electronics. Reality hit Seokmin again and he felt the warmth fade again. He remembered the buzzing from his phone from earlier, the sickening feeling in his stomach when he thought about his parents. How were they? Would they forgive him for leaving them?  
  
Seokmin fell out of his thoughts and went back to listen to the conversation, Woozi saying they’d give him and Seungkwan new phones soon that actually could be of use. If they wanted to continue their academic studies, they’d have to be home schooled until they enrolled to university. That was apparently what Vernon did, as he made a comment about how he’d love to have friends to study with. Did everyone study or were some of them dropouts? It was a school day today and Seokmin didn’t see anyone in school uniforms. Now that he thought about it, there’s only boys here. Was Seventeen a boys-only organisation? Ah, too many questions ran through his head.

While Seokmin kept going back and forth between his own thoughts and the conversation in the room, he just felt more and more confused. He almost forgot his apple and had to remind himself to eat it. He looked around the table, noticing that Mingyu had left to change clothes. The8 followed him. Vernon took the rest of the pancakes, Jeonghan stealing at least three from his plate. Woozi was trying to soothe Seungkwan’s anxiety by saying soon the mess would be sorted out and Wonwoo… Wonwoo was back to looking down at his lap, clearly not intending to join the conversation.

Woozi glanced at the clock and got off his stool by the table, muttering something about having to finish paperwork. Before he left he told the newbies what time he’d guide them down to the training rooms, then left.

The room was becoming quiet but that silence was short-lived as Vernon told Seokmin and Seungkwan he’d help them unpack their bags in their room. As the trio left, Seokmin noticed Jeonghan had taken Vernon’s unfinished plate of pancakes and offered some to the silent Wonwoo.

 

“Trust me, Jeonghan isn’t that scary. I mean yeah he’s a lil psycho whenever he has something in his hands but he’s cool.” Vernon said, lying down on his bed and scratching his stomach. In the meantime, Seungkwan was putting his clothes in a spare drawer and Seokmin just came out from the bathroom after putting his toilet bag there. Seungkwan seemed to shiver whenever the older boy’s name was mentioned.  
  
“I don’t know… He gets hella adrenaline kicks when he’s in charge of the slightest of power. That’s probably why he isn’t one of the leaders.” Leaders? Seungkwan held his t-shirt tightly in his hands and looked up at the other boy.   
  
“What do you mean?” He asked, Seokmin also getting interested as he started placing his clothes in an empty drawer next to Seungkwan’s.

“Well, since we’re so many members we need more than one leader, especially when he’s gone like right now.” Vernon sat up and started to count members with his fingers. “We have Coups who’s the top of the pyramid. He’s like the guy with the last say in things, a country with a Veto vote, y’know? Hoshi and Woozi are also leaders, but Coups can forbid whatever decisionmaking they make.”

“Wait-” Seokmin looked over at Seungkwan who had sat himself down, leaning his back against a closet closet door. “So that means, if Coups is opposed to Woozi’s decidion of making me and Seok members…”  
  
“Then Coups decision will be final.” Vernon’s words were terrifying, but he smiled. “But don’t worry, that’s never happened before! Coups is more than happy to get new members in Seventeen.”

Seungkwan grew silent, obviously feeling anxious again. Poor guy. Seokmin decided to take the liberty to ask some questions.

“So.. How many members are there? Are we only boys?” Vernon nodded, running a hand through his light brown hair.  
  
“Yeah. With you two we’re thirteen members.” Vernon said. “Why we’re only boys is kind of an unanswered mystery, but it’s cool. We’re all family.”   
  
“Family?”   
  
Vernon nodded again. “Since we only got each other, it’s no use in not being close to each other.”   


With that being said, Seokmin realized that he and Seungkwan weren’t the only ones to abandon their families. They all had. Even Vernon. What was his family like? Seokmin didn’t wanna test his luck and make anyone uncomfortable now.

“So… Why are we called Seventeen?” he asked, obviously rather wanting to know more about each member and who they were before and after joining the organization.  
  
“Oh man… I don’t even remember… I think it was because Coups started with the first couple of members when he was seventeen.” Vernon said, rubbing his hand on his chin. “They were three back then… It was him, Hoshi and Woozi… I think the three of them were childhood friends.”   
  
“When did you join?” The boys looked over at Seungkwan who opened his mouth for the first time in a while. Seokmin looked back at Vernon to study his reaction, hopefully they didn’t press the wrong button. And to his relief, Vernon’s expression didn’t change.   
  
“Hmmm. I joined a year and a half ago.” Vernon explained, “Coups came up to me and asked me to join after I was in a fight with my mom. She doesn’t like faultbloods and I was obviously not agreeing with her opinion. We were in town, y’know? There was a faultblood who got thrown out of the restaurant we were eating at and I got so pissed I left.”   
  
“Apparently Coups saw the entire thing. He asked me more in depth about my opinion about it and asked to join his gang. I was pretty young at the time so I said yeah without thinking twice.” Despite how heavy Seungkwan’s chest felt from listening to this, Vernon didn’t seem like he was remembering something painful. “I mean- of course I miss my family! I was childish and it was a silly fight, but the life I have now is better.”   
  
“Now that you don’t have to hide being a faultblood?” Seokmin wanted to hit himself for being so curious, but he _had_ so ask. To his surprise, Vernon shook his head.   
  
“No. No one in my family were faultbloods.” He laughed, scratching his neck. “I guess it’s really stupid of me. A normal guy leaving his entire life behind to defend faultbloods. But I don’t regret it.”   
  
Seungkwan just looked at him in silence, but Seokmin didn’t want to let the topic die.   
  
“Are there more members who aren't faultbloods?” He asked, earning another nod. Vernon climbed down from the bunk bed and sat on the floor on the opposite side of the other boys.

“Jeonghan and Mingyu aren’t faultbloods either. They joined for the same reason as I did.” He said and crossed his legs. “Like I said, we’re like a family. Even if I don’t gain that much from being here, I’m doing a cause. I’ve also met some of the coolest people in my life by joining Seventeen.”

Seungkwan found himself nodding. He was starting to understand, but also found an impatient feeling grow in him. He’d see these guys as his family soon, right? He’d fall into the system and everything he were to learn would be a new routine. A new comfort. He was excited to call this place ‘home’.

But like this, this home sounded so terrifying. Seokmin and Seungkwan had finished unpacking and went downstairs to meet Woozi whom was now leading them down a long, dark corridor. The house was best described as the tip of the iceberg, while the rest of it was under the surface. These underground tunnels and countless rooms was like a maze. No wonder Woozi said it was hard to find around the first time. They probably needed a guide a couple of more times.   
  
Seungkwan noted there were doors with words such as _‘Storage’, ‘Lab room’_ and _‘Office’_ here and there. Soon he saw words like _‘Training’_ painted on the doors. Then they stopped. Woozi turned around and and told them they reached their destination. He told then Wonwoo and Jeonghan would help them back, then left. Seungkwan and Seokmin shared a look but decided not to say anything. They decided to open a door each and were lucky to see their respective trainers in the practice rooms. On the other hand, they didn’t expect the rooms to _not_ be decorated like an indoors gym. Seungkwan had thought of reciting the lyrics of _‘Eye of the Tiger’_ to keep going. Oh well.

“Kwannie! Come in, let’s start!” Jeonghan said, pouring _gasoline_ on the floor. Fucking gasoline. Seungkwan looked back at Seokmin one last time, hoping for his prayers, and walked in. The room was pretty blank, walls, floor and ceiling made of concrete. It felt cold. Probably because it was underground.   
  
“What are you doing?” He asked, inching closer to Jeonghan who seemed to pour the gasoline into circle patterns. He saw a shredded paper stack by one of the pillars that held the ceiling from crashing down. What was Jeonghan planning?   
  
“We’re gonna test your strength first, then we’ll try something from there. Ok?” Jeonghan smiled, putting the gasoline aside. Seungkwan rose a brow, confused as how exactly Jeonghan would train him. He wasn’t a faultblood, that’s what Vernon told him. But it seemed like he knew what he was talking about, so maybe he shouldn’t be that judgemental. And what’s up with him not being super weird and creepy? He seemed normal now that the two were alone.

“Take your hoodie off so you don’t burn yourself.” Jeonghan said, taking a hair tie from his wrist and tying his hair into a small ponytail. “When you’re ready I’ll throw the paper shreds around and you’ll try to throw fire at them okay?”  
  
Seungkwan was confused but did as he was told. He didn’t know why they had to have gasoline all over the floor, but it was probably to see how long he could aim and what not. He threw his hoodie to the side and got eye contact with Jeonghan, nodding to say he was ready to start. Jeonghan threw two fistful of paper shreds in the air, three circles of gasoline away from Seungkwan. Seungkwan built a flame in his hand and threw it like a ball or something, just reaching the start of the second circle. The entire circle eventually lit up and both Seungkwan and Jeonghan looked in awe. The paper fell to the ground, untouched.

 

“Again.” Wonwoo said, leaning against a pillar as Seokmin attempted to freeze the figurines hanging from the ceiling. He panted, cracking his fingers and shot, only minor frost reaching a few of the dolls. He was ready to do it again until Wonwoo interfered.  
  
“Stop. Let’s take a break.” Seokmin nodded, thankful it was over for now. He looked at the dolls, not expecting Wonwoo to have iron fists like this. It was good he wasn’t doubtful of his control, but damn it was exhausting. He sat down on the floor, watching as Wonwoo took a hoodie on and zipped it closed. He himself wasn’t complaining in his t-shirt, but guessed it must be pretty cold.

“So... You’ve never been able to practice your powers?” Wonwoo asked, crossing his arms. Seokmin wasn’t used to hear his voice yet, as it was surprisingly deep. Almost frightening, but since Wonwoo seemed like such a gentle person it probably wasn’t right to describe it like that.

“No. I couldn’t.” He said, hearing Wonwoo hum in understanding. It seemed like he didn’t want to push the topic further as the older boy rubbed his arms, then pushed away from the pillar and walked closer to Seokmin. He sat down in front of him, shuddering a little in the cold.

“Your home wasn’t really that much of a safespace, huh?” Seokmin looked up, tilting his head to the side. He was pretty confused as of why Wonwoo would make that assumption. Okay, his father might not’ve been a very open person if Seokmin came out as a faultblood. But his mom had always been supportive of him, right? Ah, just thinking of his parents made _that_ feeling come back. The dry throat, the stomach aching anxiety and the thoughts stuck in the past. He grew uncomfortable in his own skin. He sank so deep into his own thoughts he didn’t notice the change in Wonwoo’s expression.   
  
“I know we’re not that close and you and Seungkwan joined only yesterday.” Wonwoo’s voice got Seokmin out of his daze, and took all of his attention. “But you can talk with us about it. Leaving your life behind like you did is hard, we’ve all been through it. You don’t have to mourn alone.”

“Mourn?” Seokmin didn’t mean for that to slip out, but it did. He didn’t think of calling this mourning… No one died, could you mourn even when someone didn’t die? On the other hand, he did feel slightly comforted by Wonwoo’s words. If he was mourning, he was glad he had people who had gone through the same as him to help him out. He was happy he wasn’t alone in this.  
  
“Mhm.” Wonwoo nodded, looking at Seokmin with furrowed brows and worry in his eyes. His head was tilted up slightly, skinny fingers digging themselves in his rear knee to warm them up as he sat with his legs up to his chest.   
  
“But you mourn the dead. No one’s dead, right?” He suddenly grew worried for his family. His eyes widened and he leaned forward slightly, hoping nothing happened. Wonwoo chuckled, a smile spread on his face.   
  
“No, don’t worry about them. They’re fine.” He untucked his fingers and got off the ground, leaning forward to help Seokmin up. Still smiling gently. “You’ll understand soon. Let’s get back to practice, yeah?”

 

“I thought I was going to die. The fire was everywhere.” Seungkwan scratched his scalp roughly. “And I started to think Jeonghan wasn’t a psycho, that guy was _laughing_ !”   
  
The four roommates were sitting on the floor, Vernon and Mingyu both curious about how their day had been. Jeonghan was apparently an arsonist and wanted to kill Seungkwan just for kicks. Mingyu had just gotten back from his mission with The8 and no one wanted to question the weird stains on his shirt. He had just gotten out of the shower and was still rubbing a towel on his hair, wearing a fuzzy sweater. Vernon had been rolling around the house all day, but also helped choose Seungkwan and Seokmin’s new phones as Vernon was aware of what kids were into these days. Seungkwan had been talking about how he thought his own genetics would kill him during practice and how Jeonghan made a comment that his powers were surprisingly (in a positive way) strong.

“Dude, you’re like El Diablo!” Vernon said, earning a confused look from the other boy.  
  
“Who?” Seungkwan looked between Vernon and Mingyu, even turning to Seokmin for an answer but they all seemed like they understood the reference. Without him. Seungkwan huffed and crossed his arms as the others shared a laugh.   
  
“You don’t know?” Seokmin hit his arm softly, “The guy with tattoos from _‘Suicide Squad_ ’?”

Seungkwan sighed and rolled his eyes. “I haven’t seen that movie yet.”  
  
The others gaped at him, Mingyu mentioning how he _had_ to see it. Vernon snickered because he thought his comparison was funny and Seokmin patted his back trying to be supportive. Once things had settled down, he’d have to rent the movie. Too bad he had seen way too many other teenagers dress up as Harley Quinn and the Joker to actually be the slightest interested. A shiver ran down his spine thinking about it.

 

“So how did it go?” Woozi asked, installing all sorts of programs into the new phones for Seungkwan and Seokmin. Jeonghan was sipping from his smoothie (when did he even make that?) while checking different websites and missing people's profiles to keep track on how much coverage Seokmin and Seungkwan’s disappearances had gotten yet. Wonwoo was eyeing the green smoothie from time to time, but mainly scrolling through the new members personal social networks to see updates from their friends or families.  
  
“I think Seungkwan has potential.” Jeonghan said, clicking on an article stating two boys from the same high school has disappeared this morning. “But he’s shaken up by everything. He’s strong but doesn’t know how to control his powers.”   
  
Woozi hummed, then glanced over at Wonwoo. Wonwoo’s eyes scanned through some comments on the boys Facebook pages saying things like _‘we hope you’ll come back safely <3’ _ , and _‘please be safe’_. Nothing too out of the ordinary in these scenarios.

“Seokmin’s powers seem to be blocked. I think it’s many years of fear that made him resent it so badly. He’ll have to accept himself before we can get much further.” He didn’t look up from his laptop while speaking, now scrolling through pictures of the boys with their friends and family. Birthdays, parties and other event that called for happy group pictures. He noticed Jeonghan lean his chin on Wonwoo’s shoulder since the smell of fruit smoothie filled his senses.   
  
“Aww, they look so cute in their summer uniforms.” Jeonghan giggled while looking at Wonwoo’s screen, rubbing his cheek on the others shoulder.  
  
“How soon do you think that will be?” Woozi ignored Jeonghan’s comment, placing the phones down as he had finally finished installing the phones. He leaned forward in his seat a little and rubbed his temples.

“I’m not sure.” Wonwoo stopped scrolling, earning a whine from Jeonghan.This time he looked up to face Woozi. “I don’t think it’s anything we can help him with. Maybe Coups knows the right words of persuasion but in the end it’s only Seokmin who can do this.”  
  
Wonwoo felt the weight from his shoulder lift as Jeonghan moved away from him. He gave both of them a look, raising his eyebrows. He was quiet for a bit, putting the glass down on the table.   
  
“Persuasion? He can’t pull that shit off.” He cracked a smirk on his face, almost mockingly. But the smirk was dropped as soon as he got it, and seriousness took over his face. “We can’t interfere and try to sort his thoughts out for him. That includes Cheol.”

Wonwoo and Woozi both looked at Jeonghan understandingly. Woozi nodded and rose from the table, taking the phones in one hand. “Very well. We’ll see how everything goes. I’ll hand the phones to the kids, you say anything if you see anything. Okay?”  
  
Both Wonwoo and Jeonghan nodded and waved bye to Woozi as he left. Jeonghan went back to drink his smoothie and Wonwoo could only watch in envy as the contents in the glass lessened by the seconds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the support in this fic!!!! Woaaa!!!!! Just looking at the hits and I feel a little fuzzy inside haha...
> 
> Anyway, did you see the new SVT pictures? I feel /a little/ stressed over how good looking Jeonghan is in his new hair..... Also, maybe a good reminder or something idk, I based their looks of Aju Nice promotions (but without Jeonghan's extensions and Mingyus hair is brown - not black) 
> 
> Thank you for reading!!


	5. Chapter 4

It’s now been a couple of days since Seungkwan and Seokmin joined Seventeen and were still in the process of getting themselves adjusted. They had spent most days training, earning them to put their minds on other things. Instead of thinking about their families, their friends and their former lives, they could focus on getting stronger and gain control of their powers. That’s how Seungkwan kept going at least. Keeping his mind off things and getting adjusted to new groove. Trying to gain control of his powers and his emotions. That was his life now.

In the last couple of days Seungkwan grew closer to the other boys in Seventeen. Even with The8, despite still thinking his name was weird. He was a cool guy and they got along well. Woozi was still the same and Wonwoo was polite but seemed more concerned about Seokmin. 

Nowadays Seungkwan would sit in a circle with his roommates and share stories. Whether it was about how Mingyu saw his life pass him by as he teased The8 about something silly and the consequences hit him too hard, Vernon complaining about how he had to get Wonwoo to make french toast instead of pancakes, and Seungkwan about Jeonghan’s new ways to attempt murder. 

Okay that was probably overdramatic. Recently, Jeonghan had become pretty okay to hang around. That or Seungkwan was used to the older’s shenanigans. But he still couldn’t get over when Jeonghan tried to make him set fire to himself. Arhg, that guy is so complicated! Is he really a sadist?

  
“Seungkwaaaaan!” The boy in question felt something cold on his face and he looked up, seeing Mingyu sitting in front of him with a leg outstretched by Seungkwan’s side. Now he remembered. The boys were talking in their little circle. Seungkwan was lying on his stomach, head resting on his palm. Mingyus cold, stinky does were poking his cheek. 

“Ew!!” He shot up and rubbed his face with his sleeve, scrubbing roughly. He heard Vernon and Mingyu laugh, Vernon even falling from Mingyu’s bed he sat on. Seungkwan pouted and crossed his arms. He was about to make a comment, but looked over to his side to see Seokmin look at the floor with a blank stare. The same dazed expression again. He’d carry that expression sometimes, and Seungkwan knew it happened when a lot of things were on his mind. What made him worried though, was that this had happened every day since they joined Seventeen.

Before he could ask Seokmin if he was okay, he felt a  _ gross foot _ belonging to a certain Mingyu slither up his arm. 

“Disgusting, Mingyu!” he screamed, and the other laughed again.

 

Wonwoo had gone out to get some drinks, mumbling something about green smoothies, so Seokmin was alone. Even though Wonwoo didn’t talk a lot during training, his presence was quite comforting. He was good at cheering Seokmin up when he didn’t do well, which was all the time. But oh well, at least Seokmin got some time to think for himself.

Seokmin sighed and took his sweater off, only wearing a tanktop now. It was annoying to roll the sleeves up all the time and he just really wanted to spend his time focused, not freezing his clothes to ice every other second. 

He rubbed his temple and sat down, looking up at the dolls staring at him from the ceiling. Tauntingly, mockingly. He felt so small compared to those secondhand brought childrens toys. As if they were judging him and laughing at him. Laughing since he couldn’t do what Wonwoo had instructed him to do. Laughing because his aim was crooked and unfocused. Not forceful and strong enough. They were judging him because he left his family and his education. Judging him because even if he abandoned everything, he still wouldn’t succeed in anything.

Seokmin didn’t realize the ground he sat on had started to grow frost. The frost spread far from his own body.  Spread up to his sweater and to the pillars. The longer he stared, the colder the room got.    
  
When Wonwoo got back, holding two smoothies in each hand with the door leaning on his back, he immediately shivered from the cold. He looked over at Seokmin who started vacantly at the dolls, ice spread around him.    
  
“Seokmin?” Wonwoo walked closer, placing the smoothies down on the ground and was careful not to slip on the ice the closer he got to the boy. With wide eyed and furrowed brows he looked up at the dolls Seokmin had been staring at since he got back and gasped in shock. The dolls were covered in thick layers of ice, hanging heavy off the ceiling and ready to drop at any second from the weight.

Wonwoo’s shoulders dropped and he looked down at Seokmin who still sat unmoved. He dropped to his knees and shook Seokmin by the shoulder, calling his name. Soon enough the other boy blinked, the light coming back to his eyes and confusion and slight shock spread on his face. He looked over at Wonwoo to be greeted by a wave of worry. 

“Wonwoo?... Are you okay?” He tilted his head, trying to see if the other was hurt or anything.   
  
“You’re asking me that?” Wonwoo sighed and got up standing, pulling Seokmin up with him by a tight grip around his arm. “You’re the one who should answer, look at what you did!”   
  
Wonwoo threw his free arm towards the scene before them, gesturing at the dolls covered in ice. Seokmin looked over, suddenly realizing what he had done. He started shaking, realize  _ he _ caused that because of  _ his  _ messed up head _. _ His fucked up head. Seokmin heard himself whisper, whisper comforting words to himself. Excuses to himself. Apologies to himself. Reassuring himself whatever he tried to reassure. That it was okay, that he was okay. He could do this, he had to stay strong. It was as if the ice tried to grow on him, freezing his legs stuck. He started to feel numb. Numb, terrified and cold.

Suddenly he felt arms forcefully wrap themselves around him, holding him into a tight hug. His body turned and was forced to look away, instead pressing the lower half of his face into Wonwoo’s shoulder. The panic disappeared. Calmness ran over him softly. Just like the warmth from Wonwoo’s body transferred to Seokmin’s, along with serenity and peace. He started drowning in Wonwoo’s soft sweater and scent, and his eyes looked over at the abandoned fruit smoothies Wonwoo had brought with him. 

Wonwoo didn’t say anything, instead he ran soft circles around Seokmin’s back, trying to spread more warmth to his body. It’s exactly what he needed. The perfect sense of comfort that Wonwoo knew how to give. With that, Seokmin exhaled deeply and closed his eyes.

 

In the other room the acoustic was different, way different. Guess what happened to Seungkwan. Just guess. No, Jeonghan didn’t attempt murder again. Yes, Seungkwan burnt himself. How, you ask?

Seungkwan still doesn’t have full control of his powers. He’s improving but he’s far from perfection. You might call it overworking himself beyond his own limits, but he thought he was doing well. He thought he was getting better, getting a hang of it. Getting independent. Independency can fare of well on it’s on. Independency doesn’t need routines, it doesn’t need set rules to depend on everyday life. Independency is what Seungkwan wants, it’s what he’s seeking. Fuck routines.

“Kwan I swear you’re batshit.” Jeonghan muttered, holding an arm firmly around Seungkwan’s shoulders as he hurried with the younger boy to what he described as ‘the Nurse’s office’. Seungkwan was too busy hyperventilating over his burnt hand he didn’t even think they had a nurse. Soon Jeonghan stopped and knocked a door hurriedly before opening it himself.

“Shua, drop the shit you’re doing. We need some magic doctor action.” Seungkwan noticed Jeonghan’s brows were surprisingly furrowed compared to how he talked, as if nothing was really wrong. Seungkwan looked in to see a surprisingly well lit room with books and test tubes everywhere. He followed Jeonghan in and saw a boy with skinny wrists, soft peach colored hair and upturned lips. He wore glasses which sat neatly on his face and a pastel blue shirt tucked into his jeans. He held an open book in his hand which was soon to be dropped and walked closer to the others.  


“Whats wrong? Who’s this?” ‘Shua’ asked, a soft smile on his lips. Obviously Jeonghan wouldn’t have any of that gentle act and gripped Seungkwans forearm, almost shoving the burnt hand in Shua’s face. His eyes widened and mouth opened.    
  
“Ah, I see. Come in, sit down.” Shua said, walking over to the desk where he placed his book and took his glasses off. Jeonghan gestured him over to a small bed which looked like something they’d have in hospitals. Now that he got a proper look around the room seemed like a mix between a doctor’s office and a patient’s room. Seungkwan sat on the bed with Jeonghan wriggling his feet next to him. Whether that was from impatience or just Jeonghan being Jeonghan, he had no clue. He noticed his black hair sat messily on his head, some tucked behind his ear and some not. Shua came back to Seungkwan, without medical tools, and dragged a stool with him. He sat in front of Seungkwan, taking the burnt hand and examining it carefully.

“Hmm.. It doesn’t look like a second degree burn… What happened?” He asked, looking up at Seungkwan. His eyes seemed to glitter, was that a natural thing?   
  
“Uhmm... I was practicing...” Seungkwan didn’t realize he was getting lost in the other’s sparkly eyes and felt a little flustered.    
  
“Ah, so this is the ‘Kwannie’ you were talking about Jeonghan.” Shua smiled over at Jeonghan who just nodded in return. Seungkwan felt more flustered by the nickname, his face heating up.

“My name is Seungkwan…” He stuttered out, making ‘Shua’ laugh.   
  
“Nice to meet you, Seungkwan. I’m Joshua.” Now he felt like his cheeks were  _ burning _ . Ah, those silly nicknames Jeonghan kept giving people. Instead of replying, he just nodded and looked down at his hand. Joshua did the same.   
  
The room was silent and Joshua held Seungkwan’s burnt hand with both of his own. Seungkwan winced slightly in the pain, but noticed how Joshua seemed extremely focused. Soon enough, the pain lessened. When it had completely disappeared Joshua let go of his hand, the wound now gone. Seungkwan looked in awe and held his hand up towards the light.

“Shua has healing powers, he’s our own super doctor.” As if the stress had washed away from Jeonghan, he grinned and looked at Seungkwan’s hand. But the smile soon dropped. He looked down at Joshua who still sat on the stool.   
  
“Why did he burn himself? Isn’t he supposed be immune to that?” Jeonghan asked, a small frown back on his face. It made sense. Seokmin was immune to cold, shouldn’t Seungkwan be immune to fire in that case?   
  
“I’m not sure why that is…” Joshua scratched his head, he looked back up at Seungkwan. “Maybe wear gloves? It’s probably not a permanent solution, but maybe we gotta figure out what causes you not being immune first.”   
  
Seungkwan nodded, it made sense to him. He wasn’t scared of using his powers, but it would be a restriction if he couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t burn his own face off. He thought what may be the cause of why he wasn’t immune to his own powers, looking over at the desk in which stacks of books lay. The two others had already started engaging in conversation, but Seungkwan tilted his head at what he saw. He remember Woozi mentioning academic studies still being a possibility despite being a member, and he also recognized these books as school books.

“Excuse me.” Seungkwan stuttered, looking back at Joshua who immediately turned his attention back to him. “What are you studying?”

Joshua smiled, teeth showing. He was about to answer until Jeonghan beat him to it, his arm resting on Seungkwan’s shoulders.

“Shua studies at uni. The pride of the family.” Joshua’s smile seemed to widen at the ‘compliment’. Jeonghan leaned closer to Seungkwan and mumbled. “He studies something about doctors and trees. It’s super boring and only boring people understand it.

“It’s not doctors and trees.” Joshua shook his head, laughing slightly. He scratched the arch of his eyebrow. “I’m studying biomedical science. It’s not that boring if you’re interested.”

  
Seungkwan was lost. Biomedi- what? Was that a scientist or a doctor? Both maybe? He was incredibly confused. 

“Oh yeah, Joshua’s pretty good at hiding his powers so he’s studying in a fancy school.” Jeonghan said, “But he’s pretty busy because of it and tends to study here, That why the two of you didn’t meet before.”   
  
Seungkwan nodded, suddenly understanding. Well, he didn’t understand whatever major Joshua was taking, but he understood the reason why he hadn’t seem Joshua before. But now he was wondering, Joshua looked young but so did everyone else he had met. How old were the majority of them? Where there even any adult here? Seungkwan turned to Jeonghan to ask him, his newly healed hand rested under his other hand as they were both placed on his lap.

“Who are the oldest in Seventeen?” he asked innocently, but earned looks from both Jeonghan and Joshua. They looked at Seungkwan, then at each other, then back at Seungkwan. And they snickered. Ah shit, did he do something? He felt the embarrassment come back and the temperature on his face rising.   
  
“Well.” Joshua said, clearing his throat. “S.Coups is the oldest, but Jeonghan and I come after him.”

Seungkwan nodded, guessing it would be obvious that Coups was the oldest. Wait, S.Coups? Was that his actual name? And what was up with those weird names anyway? Ah, he’d have to ask about that some other time.    
  
“So, how old is he? And Jeonghan, how old are you?” Judging by Jeonghan’s reaction, Seungkwan most likely slipped. With that death stare he knew he’d have to watch his back from now on. Seungkwan felt himself grow cold and his face lost all color.

“What’s that supposed to mean? The three of us are all 21!” He most likely just acted like he was annoyed for fun, but Seungkwan could tell there was some butthurt in his tone. He laughed nervously, at least happy he wouldn’t die anytime soon. 

But before he could apologize, Joshua make a remark and Jeonghan fired back. Seungkwan was eventually left completely out of the conversation, but it was okay. He was pretty interested in the conversation too and he didn’t wanna intervene. Jeonghan conversed differently with Joshua compared to the other members. He was usually very sweet in his words and didn’t mind touching others strangely while wearing a slightly uncanny smile. Now, with Seungkwan completely forgotten in the shadows, Jeonghan carried a normal conversation like he was a normal person. 

Okay, he was probably a normal person. But it was strange to see him not act like he usually did, that being a laughing maniac playing with a gun. He didn’t scoot closer to Joshua to pinch his cheeks, like he would to Seungkwan, The8 and Vernon. Were they closer than they were with the others? It would make sense since they’re the same age though. Maybe it was for the best if he didn’t question it.

 

After waiting for Jeonghan and Joshua to finish talking, Seungkwan went back to practice a bit before going up again. Jeonghan had rushed to the kitchen, talking about how he was starving, so Seungkwan was on his way up to his room to change out of his current clothes and into something more comfortable. He was in the midst of making plans for the rest of the afternoon. Should he watch TV in the living room with Seokmin? Eat chips? What chips should he eat? Wait, hadn’t Mingyu eaten all the chips the day before?   
  
Obviously being too deep in his  _ very important _ thoughts, he opened the door to his shared room without thinking much about it. Which was obviously a mistake since Vernon was there, wearing those questionable pastel shorts again, and banging his head to ‘ _ Pick Me _ ’ from Produce 101. The first thing that Seungkwan wanted to ask was why he was banging his head to  _ that _ song. Why couldn’t he use a song that wasn’t as embarrassing to headbang to?

Nonetheless, Vernon hadn’t noticed Seungkwan’s arrival so Seungkwan decided not to bother the other boy when he was in a zone. He went to the wardrobe and opened his drawer, taking out a cozy sweater and sweatpants. Closing the drawer with a free hand, he looked over at Vernon who was still listening to ‘ _ Pick Me _ ’. But after swinging his head towards Seungkwan’s direction the dancing stopped and soon did the music too.   
  
“Oh my God, how long have you been here?” Vernon was obviously embarrassed about the performance he just showcased Seungkwan, but Seungkwan seemed pretty neutral. This was among the least crazy things that had happened to him this week. And at least he didn’t dab.   
  
“Before the beat dropped in the chorus.” He said, shrugging as he threw his clothes on the bed and walked over to it while taking his long sleeved shirt off. He heard nervosity in Vernon’s voice and whether that was because he had been caught having the time of his life listening to  _ ‘Pick Me _ ’ or because Seungkwan was shirtless was something he didn’t wish to guess on.

“Aha…” Seungkwan glanced over at Vernon after getting his well deserved warm sweater made of joy and unicorns, and it was obvious Vernon probably just mourning the fact his closet I.O.I stan days were over. Vernon sat on Mingyu’s bed and started going through his phone, asking; “So what were you up to today?”

It was probably to change conversation so Seungkwan didn’t have to think he had blackmail material against Vernon, but Seungkwan was a nice person and didn’t need any blackmail. Yet. He wriggled out of his pants and unfolded the sweats. “Well, I got a second degree burn on my hand.”   
  
As he took the sweatpants on he heard Vernon freak out. “What?? Are you okay? What happened?”   
  
“I burnt my hand.” Seungkwan gave him a deadpanned look and sat on his bed. “But it healed thanks to Joshua.”

“Ah, Joshua? Do you like him? He’s cool right?” Vernon smiled, leaning forward a little in the bed with crossed legs. Pressing the subject further about how the hand-to-fire scene happened wouldn’t happen and Vernon knew that.

“Uhmm… I guess? He’s nice.” Seungkwan looked down at his lap, suddenly feeling embarrassed again. Ugh, why was he like this? He picked at the cuticles of his nails, remembering how embarrassed he was and how much he was blushing just earlier. Speaking of blushing, those shades of red had apparently returned to his face as he not only felt his face heat up but also Vernon’s laugh.

  
“What’s that? Are you blushing?” Vernon leaned way closer, to the headboard of the bunkbed. Since the bunk beds were horizontally next to each other, pressed against the wall, Vernon was about 20 centimeters away from getting a slap across the face. “Do you have a crush on Josh”

“No!” Seungkwan’s face became redder and it didn’t help that Vernon wore the widest shiteating grin he’d ever seen. His entire body felt like it was on fire and he was probably boiling by the point that Vernon leaned even closer to cup Seungkwan’s cheek in his hand.   
  
“Ah, shit!” He pulled away instantly though, looking down at his hand and waved it in the air to cool it down. “Dude, I was gonna tease you but you’re literally boiling hot! Are you a human heater or something?”   
  
While Vernon was still freaking out Seungkwan frowned, thinking it served him right. Payback’s a bitch after all. If only he could burn his face off too. He crossed his arms and leaned back a little, raising a brow at Vernon who was now blowing air on his hand. He sighed. It wasn’t that bad, right? Seungkwan moved a hand up to touch his face but didn’t feel much difference. This was weird. Why could he handle his own temperature, which were allegedly abore natural warmth, but not the fire he casted? He wasn’t even sweating! He really had to figure himself out.

“You’re not El Diablo anymore, you’re a humanoid volcano!” But first Seungkwan had to beat the living shit out of Vernon.

 

“We need to buy more fruit after all those smoothies.” Wonwoo said, looking in the fridge. It was full of tomatoes since Woozi had a tomato craving phase about two weeks ago and now the rest of the boys had to suffer by looking at those poor tomatoes, uneaten. He closed the door again and looked back at Jeonghan who sat by the kitchen island, newly emptied smoothie glass on the table. He picked a glass up and looked in to see if he could find a way to get the remaining contents out, which he only could if he was willing to lick the glass. But don’t give him any ideas.

“Where’s the grown ups when you need them.” Jeonghan whined, obviously not keen on taking the grocery shopping job. Wonwoo sighed and sat on a stool next to Jeonghan, looking at the glass with slight distress.

“We also need to do something about the tomatoes.” He said, considering on making tomato soup when the others came back so the red vegetables could disappear for good.

“Seungkwan is allergic though.” Jeonghan glanced over at Wonwoo, making the other boy sighed and rub his temples. Jeonghan snickered, feet dangling from the stool. The older boy noticed Wonwoo was thinking about something, and he obviously didn’t care for secrecy, so Jeonghan opened his mouth to speak.

“What’s bothering you, man?” Jeonghan leaned forward, his back bent terribly for what would be good for him in the future, with his temple pressed against his his palm. Wonwoo’s face twitched slightly, looking down at the table. His hands were almost melted together in his lap, fingers braided so well together. His expression calmed down and the hair on his head still let show of Wonwoo’s relaxed eyes. He thought about what he had seen earlier that day. What Seokmin did. The ice he had  _ walked _ on. The ice Seokmin  _ made. _ How could he do that, what happened to him? How could they help him?

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to let Seokmin go through this alone.” He said after a long time of silence. What Jeonghan said a couple of days ago had been itching at him so bad. But he didn’t want to hold eye contact with him, he just couldn’t. It was better to study the empty glass.

Jeonghan understood this and straightened his back, resting his upper arm on the table. “We need to help him before he fucks up?”   
  
Wonwoo nodded. Jeonghan nodded back, then sighed. He looked at the glass too now.

“Like you said,  _ we _ probably can’t help him.” Jeonghan reminded. Again, Wonwoo nodded.

“And Coups?” Wonwoo asked, finally glancing over at Jeonghan, head tilted slightly. This time Jeonghan was silent, deep in thought. It seemed he might also be carefully picking the words to say this time.

“He might make him realize.” Jeonghan finally said. He turned his head to Wonwoo and looked at him. “I don’t think he can do much, but maybe a push. A trigger or something.”   
  
“When are they coming back?” Wonwoo groaned. The heavy mood lifted slightly and Wonwoo stretched his arms. A grin grew on Jeonghan’s face as he watched the younger one. 

“Miss daddy already?” Jeonghan yelped after that when Wonwoo tried to push him off his stool. Jeonghan laughed, holding a hand on his stomach and the other on the table  _ in case _ of another push headed his way.

  
“It’s just a mess without him.” Wonwoo explained, pouting a little.   
  
“But it’s a mess  _ with _ him too.” Jeonghan shot him a look, raised brow and everything. Wonwoo could only nod in agreement. Despite that, he had a feeling in his gut that something just wasn’t right. He was worried and despite how Jeonghan had already seemed to lighten up in his own mood, Wonwoo couldn’t find himself to do the same. The same question kept repeating in his mind; what was going on in Seokmin’s head?   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiiiii guuuuuuuuysss!!!
> 
> ok lol Uhmmm a lot has happened since I updated. Seventeen has no chill. Which song is your favorite from the highlight medley? Personally I'm really excited for beautiful!!
> 
> Anyway!! Sorry for late update, school wants me to choke on rocks. Next chapter is longer and after that the "plot" will start to form properly!! I'm so so thankful for everyone who have interest in this story and I hope I'm not dissapointing you with my word vomit!!!! Thank you for reading!! : )


	11. Chapter 5

The next morning, Mingyu knew something was different. Something happened during the time he was asleep. Jeonghan seemed more stressed than usual while Woozi was less stressed than usual. Vernon and Wonwoo both seemed pretty jolly but luckily the newbies were just as confused as he was. But when Woozi told him what was happening, he understood.

Coups was coming back. Today. This afternoon. And Mingyu still hasn’t fixed the radio in the car, which he promised to do before the others came back. Fuck.

“Hey… Where did Mingyu go?” The8 asked a while after Mingyu had rushed out the house and slammed the door. No one else questioned it and decided to keep watching TV, very well ignoring Mingyu’s attempt to save his own live. For example, Vernon shrugged and continued to chow down the popcorn on his lap. He had just gotten out of the shower and that would be the only effort he’d put into the day. Don’t ask why he was eating popcorn at shit o’clock, a hidden house in the forest full of boys would obviously not have rules about what and how you eat your breakfast.

Woozi was busy on the phone, walking in circles in the kitchen while talking to someone. Jeonghan had been running around frantically before going downstairs, probably put all his stress on Joshua instead. Wonwoo, on the other hand, was the only one who thought cleaning the pigsty they called home. He has also showered and taken some presentable clothes on. That being said, they were clean and not pajamas. 

Seungkwan and Seokmin just got down the stairs from their room, both gotten out of their own pajamas and into jeans and shirts. Seokmin mentioned the popcorn and walked straight ahead to Vernon who was now trying to protect the popcorn with all his might. Seungkwan chuckled and shook his head, walking into the living room. He passed Wonwoo who was carrying stacks of clothes towards the laundry room and saw The8 sitting unfinched on the couch, staring at the television screen while Vernon seemed bitter about Seokmin taking half a fist of popcorn. 

Seungkwan moved and sat himself next to The8, noticing the other boys were intently watching  _ ‘Kim Possible _ ’. He remembered it was his sisters’ favorite show when they were younger and they even had the opening track as their ringtone before iPhones became a thing. 

“Yeah, they’re here…” Seungkwan heard Woozi’s voice from the kitchen, “I think they wanna stay… They’re invested.”   
  
He did have an underlying feeling that Woozi was talking about him and Seokmin, but now it was confirmed. He felt a little anxious, remembering what Vernon said a couple of days ago. Top of the pyramid. Even if there was little chance, S.Coups  _ could _ oppose the two to stay. What would happen then? He and Seokmin had gone _ missing,  _ away from their families and their school. Everything. It would be way too sketchy if they just returned without any sort of fake background story. 

Shit, he grew anxious again. Seungkwan stopped eavesdropping and looked over at the boys he shared couch with. Seokmin and Vernon seemed busy watching ‘ _ Kim Possible _ ’ now, both having forgotten the popcorn. The8 turned to look back to Seungkwan once he felt the younger boy stare at him. 

“You worried about meeting the others?” He asked. Was it that obvious or were everyone just mind readers in this gang?   
  
“Uhm… How did you-”   
  
“You’re sweating.” The8 answered, pointing a finger at his temples were sweat was  _ running _ . He hadn’t even realized! He just showered! This was unfair. Seungkwan groaned and wiped his face with his palms, grossed out by himself. 

“Ew…” He looked down at his soaked palm, hearing a chuckle from The8.

“Don’t worry, they others are nice.” The8 assured him, wanting to pat Seungkwan’s back but decided against it for obvious reasons. He grimaced slightly but attempted to give Seungkwan a look of sympathy. “There’s no need to worry.”  
  
If only those words worked. It felt like there was a lot of reason to worry. 

 

The good thing was that there wasn’t any practice today. Wonwoo was too busy cleaning and Jeonghan was busy hiding under Joshua’s college books so Seokmin and Seungkwan were out with Vernon and The8. They decided to get some fresh air on the forest, but first The8 had to mock Mingyu forgetting to fix the car. After that they continued their merry way deeper in the forest, Seungkwan for once being kinda happy he wasn’t overheating. 

“I swear, it was all fake!” Vernon said, his feet kicking fallen leaves out of his path. Seungkwan rolled his eyes.   
  
“If it was all fake, why do we have cameras on the moon?” He threw back. The two were the discussing the moonlanding while The8 and Seokmin were talking about something else before them. They also meant to keep an eye out in case of intruders, which was kind of a thing they had to be wary off when big black cars filled with teenage boys would drive into the forest. So far they hadn’t seen anything, but that’s also because Seungkwan learned this forest had a reputation of being haunted. Yikes.

“It’s all photoshop!” Nothing Vernon said made sense and Seungkwan groaned, rolling his eyes far back into his head. “Listen, the moon landing didn’t happen. America just wanted to pretend they won the space race. But there’s no way a moon landing could’ve happened with that technology at the time.”

“So you’re telling me we could do it today?” Seungkwan asked, paying more attention to Seokmin and The8 in front of them. The two were having a much more peaceful conversation compared to the one the younger boys in the group were having.

“Not even today we’d be capable. Unless if a faultblood with a supermind or can breathe in space and handle high pressure would sign up for NASA.” Seungkwan knew Vernon was a fan of conspiracy theories, but making his own was straight up silly. He wanted to throw leaves at Vernon but Seokmin would film it and The8 would interfere. Not worth it.

“I’ll leave an application in then.” Seungkwan looked over at Seokmin and The8, wondering what they were talking about. He tilted his head a little, trying to dig his hands deeper into his pockets. He exhaled, noticing a small fog leaving his mouth. They were well into autumn but he didn’t wanna accept that fact yet. Quite frankly he wanted to reverse time back to summer so he didn’t have to suffer like this. Soon it would snow too, but Seungkwan  _ wasn’t ready. _

But going back in time meaning to go back to his old life. If he went back, would he still join Seventeen? In all honestly he only joined because he was pressured. But would he be able to see Seokmin leave and join a faultblood gang?   
  
Seungkwan felt his mouth dry up as he turned to Vernon, his voice lower. “By the way…”   


Vernon looked at him, expecting to continue with the fake moon landing conversation. His brow was raised and he looked at him with a not-so-kind expression. “Hm?”   


“That… Video…” Seungkwan noticed how the cold expression in Vernons face disappeared as his eyes grew and lips separated. He hesitated before he continued, swallowing his fear. “Do you still have it?”

If Seungkwan wasn’t mistaken, the younger boy almost looked upset. Brows furrowed, hazel eyes now avoiding Seungkwan. His lips were shut into a thin line. Seungkwan already knew he was going to dread the answer.

“We still have it.” Vernon scratched his neck, as if feeling incredibly uncomfortable talking about this. “In case if something happens…”  
  
“What would happen?” Seungkwan interrupted, frowning. He felt sick now, almost nauseas. Also incredibly angry and upset. Did Woozi not trust him? Were they going to keep the video if Seungkwan left? Is this the only way for them to know he won’t leave?

He wanted to vomit all contents out from his stomach suddenly, but instead exhaled deeply, hands tightened into fists in his pockets. Seungkwan felt a headache approach and he was honestly too tired to deal with this. Vernon noticed other boy’s drastic change of mood and his expression only became more sad.

They stood silently for a while until Vernon finally thought of something to say. He looked back up at Seungkwan, who had a glare set down at the ground. It made the younger boy nervous to speak.   
  
“You won’t leave… right?” Even though Vernon thought he was going to be grilled alive and served to eat with an apple in his mouth as soon as he asked that, Vernon was surprised to still be alive. Even more surprised to see Seungkwan’s expression soften. The glare was gone, the redness in his face disappeared and soon enough the dark eyes Seungkwan possessed looked up at Vernon. It was as if he was caught off guard, or even got back to his conscious. The hardness and complete outrage in his face was replaced with softness and ease. It was almost as if he was contemplating the answer. 

Before Seungkwan could answer, Seokmin and The8 had walked up to the two and asked if they should go back. So of course, Seungkwan didn’t answer. The four walked back instead.

During the walk back Vernon would occasionally glance over at Seungkwan, who still seemed to be thinking about an answer. Seokmin and The8 were trying to include the both of them in a conversation but it mostly worked on Vernon. They talked to pass time and soon enough they were back in the house.    
  
Two things were different once they had come back, one being Mingyu not fixing the car radio anymore and two being another van parked next to the one Mingyu had abandoned.    
  
“They’re back.” The8 mumbled, his steps going faster than before, almost rushing into the house. Vernon grinned, following The8. Seungkwan and Seokmin looked at each other before doing the same, walking into the house.    
  
As soon as they entered they heard Woozi yell: “Hoshi, I’m going to dismember every limb of yours if you keep that shit up!”   
  
Vernon chuckled as he kicked his shoes off, noticing how there was a lot less space for his shoes and jacket. Joshua came up to them, maybe the only one noticing their arrival, and greeted them with a smile.   
  
“Nice to see you back.” he said, his glasses sitting neatly on his nose bridge. He turned his attention to Vernon and The8. “We have a meeting downstairs, in the big training room.”

The others nodded and Joshua went to the living room where Woozi was trying to rip the hair off of Hoshi’s scalp. Seungkwan and Seokmin were very curious about this guy, knowing he was in the same sort of leader position as Woozi. Maybe even close to Woozi, judging by the murder attempt unfolding in front of them. Hoshi laughed, Joshua already persuaded Woozi to stop attacking him, and turned to the boys who just entered the house.

“Ah, you gotta be the new kids! Hi, I’m Hoshi.” Light blue hair, slanted eyes and surprisingly cute smile. He had long legs and the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows.    
  
“I’m Seokmin.” Seokmin said, returning the smile while shaking the hand Hoshi held out. Seungkwan did the same as he also had to introduce himself. 

Hoshi put both his hands on his hips and took a deep breath. “Ah, there’s nothing better than fresh meat for the team! I’m glad you-”  
  
“Don’t scare them off you smurf looking fuck.” Woozi spat at Hoshi, already on his way downstairs with Joshua. Hoshi sighed, complaining about Woozi’s remarks toward him and followed them down.

The four boys did the same, Vernon leading the way. Seungkwan was pretty busy thinking about the completely new side of Woozi he had just seen, only knowing the intimidating and collected one before this. This Woozi seemed completely different, kind of like Jeonghan’s switchy personality. Guess there really are layers upon layers to a person’s personality.

Hoshi was talking with the four younger boys while walking to the training room, catching up with The8 and Vernon while also getting to know Seungkwan and Seokmin. Woozi and Joshua ignored them though, as they also were a couple of feet ahead.  
  
Hoshi talked about what the other members had been up to, which was apparently a raid. The other half of Seventeen were on a raid as apparently someone from a non-faultblood gang had taken information from Seventeen. Hoshi had assured them it was ‘easy-peasy’, but Seungkwan couldn’t help but shiver thinking about what had actually happened there.

Hoshi mentioned some other members and the closer they got to the training room, the more anticipating Seungkwan felt about meeting them. Anticipating, but anxious. He saw Woozi walked in first, Joshua waiting for the others while holding the door open. Hoshi skipped in with Vernon following suit. The8 peeked inside before going on. Seungkwan expected Seokmin to do the same, but surprisingly enough Seokmin stopped up and looked back at Seungkwan. 

There seemed to be worry in his eyes and Seungkwan noticed how Seokmin’s fingers seemed to be clawing his palm. Seungkwan took a step closer to Seokmin and took his hand, grimacing at how frozen cold he was. He swinged their hands a bit, holding a tight grip in an attempt to warm him up a little, and looked up at Seokmin’s face.

“We’re doing this.” Seungkwan said, almost trying to reassure himself more than Seokmin. Seokmin seemed to quiver a little, but he nodded  and looked down at their hands.

“Thanks.” He said, furrowing his brows a little before looking back at Seungkwan and smiled. Seungkwan returned the smile. When was the last time he saw the older boy smile anyway? Way too long in his book. 

“Let’s go.” Seungkwan swung their hands again and they walked towards Joshua who still held the door open, letting them have their moment in peace. Joshua nodded at them and they nodded back, peeking inside to see all of Seventeen sitting on a pretty lousy circle. Apparently there was a tennis table in this training room too. Seungkwan didn’t recognize this place as he trained in a smaller room, but if he knew there was a tennis table here…

Seungkwan realized he had stood by the door frame for a while as he felt Seokmin let go of his hand and walk in. Seungkwan rushed to the other’s side and walked with him, noticing how the others were staring at them.

He saw The8 sitting with a taller boy with light brown hair, Mingyu, Wonwoo and Hoshi talking together on the floor. Woozi was staring at them, a guy with black hair and muscular body doing the same. Them, thankfully, he saw Jeonghan wave at them from the tennis table. He saw cross legged on it with a younger looking boy, sipping on a smoothie. How did he have time to get these things?  
  
Seungkwan walked over to Jeonghan with Seokmin tailing behind, glancing around again to notice there were only four people he didn’t know. He was kind of thankful there weren’t more, but he still felt like a black sheep. The odd one out, despite knowing most of the people in here.    
  
“The stars of the show are here.” Jeonghan said and patted Seungkwan’s shoulder as the he and Seokmin placed themselves down. Seungkwan nodded, almost hesitantly, and heard the door close as Joshua walked in and joined in the half assed circle of boys.

“That’s all.” Woozi said, turning to the guy with black hair. Just by looking at him, Seungkwan now realized who it was. S.Coups. He carried a stern look on his face, but it might be fatigue as there were deep set circles under his eyes as well. He wore a loose t-shirt that still displayed his muscles well and his hands were in his pockets, leaning against a pillar. Coups looked around the other members, but then turned to Seungkwan and Seokmin who by pure chance were on the exact opposite side of the circle as them. Seungkwan thought he might shit himself at the harsh look he was receiving from the leader.  


“You must be Seokmin and Seungkwan, right?” No ‘nice to meet you’, no smile. Just crossed arms and leaning back to the pillar. His gaze seemed more like a predator watching his prey than studying the newcomers. The boys couldn’t reply before Coups spoke again. “I’ll explain everything to you. Our organisation and what we do, our members and what there is for you to do.”   
  
Seungkwan swallowed, finding Seokmin’s cold hand and gripping onto it tightly. Coups voice was deep, not as deep as Wonwoo’s but deep enough to make Seungkwan wanna hide behind someone. “Woozi already explained some things but I’ll do it again just so it sets in. Seventeen is an illegal, underground faultblood organisation. We’re not in a drug ring and we don’t scam people of their money for profit, but we’re not heroes wearing capes either.”   
  
“Our cause is to find ways for faultbloods to be equal, even having to go to prohibited lengths for solutions. We’re a top secret organisation and anyone who passes information about us will be taken care of.” The room was completely silenced by now, Coups’ voice filling the room. The atmosphere was heavy. “But Woozi told me the two of you seemed interested in staying. It is true?”   
  
Seungkwan could see Seokmin nod, so he nodded as well without thinking. Then again, he had gone too far to  _ not _ join. Suddenly the atmosphere loosened up. Coups’ expression grew softer, almost gentle. His plump lips grew a small smile and the glare almost disappeared.    
  
“I’m sorry for the methods Woozi used to get you two to join, but it seems like the two of you have quite particular possessions of powers.” Coups said before glancing over at Woozi, who should look scared. But he wore the same calm expression he usually carried. Woozi nodded, his bleached hair bobbing a little.   
  
“Your powers were too good to miss the opportunity. I’m sorry we used means of blackmail to get you in. The video will be deleted, as you’ve proved your investment.” Seungkwan sighed when he heard those words, almost as if a heavy weight was lifted from him.  


“Particular… powers?” Seungkwan turned to his side to see Seokmin speak up. He looked over at Coups and Woozi with a tilted head, his cold hand still under Seungkwan’s warm one.

“It’s not common amongst faultbloods to have powers like yours. One in a thousand faultbloods might have it, but there’s obviously no statistics to prove it.” Woozi was the one to answer. Seokmin let the words sink in for a bit, but Seungkwan felt curiosity spark in him again. He looked around the room, noticing the other members were staring back. Coups seemed to get the memo.

“Now that you two are members, it would only be fair to introduce you to the family, right?” Family? Seungkwan remembered how Vernon said these kids only had each other, so for them to describe each other as a family seemed natural. But it still had a weird tone to it. He probably wouldn’t be able to call them that yet.

“Since you two already know half of us, I’ll introduce you to the rest that just came back.” Coups got Seungkwan out from his thoughts and pointed at himself. ”I’m S.Coups, the leader. I got adaptability. That being said, I can adapt to other people’s powers and reflect them.”   
  
Seungkwan nodded, swearing he heard Jeonghan next to him mumble ‘copycat’. Coups moved on and pointed at Hoshi. “Hoshi here has supersonic speed.”   
  
“Then Jun over there has night and x-ray vision. Pretty much nothing gets past his eyes.” Coups directed his attention towards the tall boy with light brown hair next to The8. Seungkwan was going to ignore Hoshi’s incredibly short introduction and looked over at Jun, feeling slightly intimidated by how piercing his gaze was. It was almost as if his eyes were turning silver. The8 noticed this and turned to Jun before smacking him in the back of the head.   
  
“Quit it.” He muttered at the taller boy, then turning his attention back to Coups who didn’t seem bothered by it at all.   
  
“And lastly, our youngest member Dino.” Seungkwan trailed his gaze towards the boy on the other side of Jeonghan before Coups even began speaking. “He can breathe underwater and endure high pressure areas.”   
  
“How old is he?” Seungkwan couldn’t stop his words from spilling out, looking at the boy with black hair who seemed to have his eyes set on Coups. Almost as if he was avoiding Seungkwan. 

“He’s turning 18 next year.” Coups didn’t carry much pride or boastfulness in his voice as he said it. Seungkwan understood why. Dino also didn’t seem to be taking this entire situation lightly, as his eyebrows were furrowed and eyes slightly squinted. Seungkwan turned back to Coups and nodded, curious as what would happen next. Or dreading it, if you wanna sugarcoat it or not.

“As official members of the group,” Hoshi spoke, getting up from his seat on the floor. “You need nicknames.”   
  
Seungkwan and Seokmin both looked at him in surprise, then turned to Woozi and Coups to see that the two of them were nodding their heads.    
  
“Most of us have codenames. It’s kind of like a name change. You decide yourself if you want one or not, but for safety reasons it might be a good idea.” Coups explained, looking between the two boys before tilting his head down a little. “To leave your past self behind.”   
  
This seemed to hit jackpot for Seokmin, as Seungkwan suddenly felt how the cold hand he once held grew warm. Seungkwan didn’t dare to look over at the other, afraid of how his best friend actually was reacting to this. He kept looking between the three leaders of the group, hoping something would happen to ease the mood at least a little.

“You don’t need to think about it now, but have something ready by the time you have a mission.” The word mission sent a chill down Seungkwan’s spine. Did they mean beat up someone for leaking information? Hacking into government files? Who knew…  
  
Coups seemed to eye the two for a really, really long time before actually dropping his tough look and letting his small smile grow. “Welcome to Seventeen, boys.”   
  
“Thanks…” The two mumbled in unison. Seungkwan felt kind of surprised that he wasn’t that confused anymore. It felt like a lot had been cleared out for him. He should feel stressed since there was  _ a lot _ he wanted to clear out. Maybe it was the fact that he was technically still a missing person and a month ago he was a normal high school student, whereas now he was an official member of an underground faultblood group. But for now, this was okay.   
  
“So… What’s for dinner?” Jeonghan asked, having finished the smoothie a long time ago. Wonwoo perked up.   
  
“We have a bunch of tomatoes in the fri-”   
  
“I really want Chinese food.” Jun said almost instantly, making Wonwoo sigh. Mingyu nodded in agreement with Jun.   
  
“Chinese food is better.” He said, getting up and dragging both Jun and The8 with him.”We’ll go.”   
  
The three left without much more argument and Hoshi started laughing. Woozi and Wonwoo on the other hand seemed more disappointed to not have any use of all the tomatoes occupying their fridge, once again. Eventually, everyone had gone. Seungkwan and Seokmin were going to go up with Vernon until Coups stopped them and placed each of his arms around the boys’ shoulders.  


“Thanks for deciding to stay. I know you two will do great.” He said, taking Seungkwan by surprise over how nice and down to earth he sounded compared to that stern glare and deep voice from earlier. Coups let go again before they could reply and walked past them. Seungkwan watched as he left and then turned to Seokmin. He noticed how Seokmin’s face, or body overall, had grown a lot less tense. He seemed relaxed, like he really felt comfortable being there. For that, Seungkwan smiled.    
  
“You like it here, don’t you?” Seungkwan patted Seokmin’s back and they walked. Seokmin nodded, chuckling.   
  
“Yeah, I might think of this as a home sooner than expected.” He said, smiling genuinly. Seungkwan just looked up at him fondly. He now felt comfortable knowing if Seokmin was content about this decision, so was Seungkwan. 

 

 

  
While the trio was gone to get dinner, Wonwoo decided to finally throw those tomatoes out of the fridge. He talked about how they were wasting food but didn’t complain when the takeout got home. Now he was chewing happily on his spring rolls with the others.

They sat in the living room, as the kitchen was kind of small for 13 young adults. They all held their own pair of chopsticks and oyster pail, munching silently to their food while some  _ ‘Fast and Furious’ _ movie was playing on the TV in front of them.Seungkwan was content with his fried noodles while Seokmin ate shrimps. Fast food made everyone happy. It was a peaceful moment.

“Daddy, can you pass me the salt?” But of course, the peaceful moment died as soon as Jeonghan opened his mouth to utter those words. He was casually digging in his small box of food with his chopsticks, food filling his left cheek as he asked. His eyes searched for something in the box, and Seungkwan heard a car crash coming from the TV.

There was complete silence, except for the noise from the action movie. No one, except Seungkwan and Seokmin, seemed to choke on their food from what Jeonghan just said. Everyone pretty much ignored him. It kind of put Seungkwan at ease, as a worst case scenario would be someone  _ actually _ passing him salt.

“Who’s your daddy, Jeonghan?” Seungcheol seemed like he was used to this kind of gag, as he hadn’t flinched one bit. Jeonghan didn’t seem happy about the reaction though, as he glared it the others, holding the oyster pail down on his lap. 

“Apparently me, myself and I.” he said, practically stabbing his chopsticks into a spring roll before eating it. “This is a cruel, cold world.”   
  
“Why would you want to put salt in fried rice anyway?” Jun asked, having a very judgemental look put on his face. A brow was arched and one corner of his lip had risen. The8 snickered, trying to hide his grinning face behind a hand. Jeonghan stuck his tongue out at him, obviously embarrassed by the fact that others had started laughing too. Seungkwan would’ve been worried he was hurt or something if it wasn’t for the fact Jeonghan was giggling too.

Seungkwan turned to Seokmin next to him and they shared a look before shrugging and returning to the movie after missing half the plot already. But they might as well ignore the movie as Hoshi said something and someone dissed him too, causing the kids to laugh again.

 

“So, who else has changed their name?” Seokmin asked. Vernon had just told them his real name was Hansol, but changed it to Vernon as he preferred it. It was obvious the others had changed name too, but it would be nice knowing who exactly.

“Well… S.Coups real name is Seungcheol.” Vernon said, thinking for a while. “The8 is actually named Minghao, Woozi is Jihoon and Hoshi is Soonyoung.”   
  
“Wait- so Dino’s name is actually Dino?” Seungkwan asked, resting his head on Seokmin’s chest as they both stared up at Vernon. For some clarity, Seokmin and Seungkwan were cuddled up together on Seungkwan’s bed while Vernon was playing monkey on Seokmin’s. But since Seungkwan was cuddled up against Seokmin this of course meant he had to wear like two sweaters in order not freeze to death.

“Nah, his name is Chan.” Vernon snickered. “Same goes for Joshua, his name is Jisoo. He changed it because he goes to university and it helps him hide his real identity. If they found out he was Hong Jisoo the faultblood he’d be expelled.” 

“Ahh…” Seungkwan nodded, looking down at the floor. “So the ones who keep their real names?”  
  
“Well… Some members kept their names because they didn’t see a point in it. Wonwoo had nothing to lose, Mingyu didn’t want to hide… Kinda living on the edge, huh?” Vernon said, rubbing his eye with a free hand. Seungkwan felt he might get better explanations if he actually asked each member in private. But he wasn’t that close with all of them yet, so he had to accept it.

“So I don’t have to change?”

“You don’t have to if you don’t wanna. But if would be cool if you changed your name.” Vernon grinned down at the over boy, his bangs were out of the way from his face so his forehead and thick eyebrows were shown in all of its glory.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Seungkwan shot up from the bed, ignoring the grunt from Seokmin. He glared at Vernon, “You don’t like my name?”   
  
Vernon snickered. “Of course I do! It would just be cooler if I got to call you something like Booyoncé.”   
  
“Or Amboolance.” Seokmin sat up, wearing an evil smirk on his face Seungkwan wanted to cry, he couldn’t believe both of them had gone up against him. 

“Hahaha, dude that’s great!” Vernon laughed, covering his mouth with a hand, his face growing pretty red now as all blood got to his head from being upside down. “Or El Diaboo!”   
  
Both Seokmin and Vernon were laughing now, but thank God karma was there to help Seungkwan seek revenge. Vernon had apparently laughed so hard that he fell off the bed and onto the ground. Luckily he didn’t die sime he somehow flipped over to land on his butt. That was a given as the non-faultblood members had to be more skilled in acrobatics and stuff like that. Who knows if he had done this before, this organization seemed more like something out of a spy movie nowadays.

Vernon continued to laugh though, now rolling on the floor as he stuttered ‘El Diaboo’ a couple of times. Seungkwan pouted and looked over at Seokmin who just smiled back at him. 

“How about you? Are you keeping your name?” Seungkwan asked, tilting his head a little as he crossed his legs. Seokmin shook his head.

“I’ve been thinking about changing, actually.” He said, making Seungkwan surprised.

“Why?” It was of pure curiosity he asked, as he really wanted to know why Seokmin looked to calm. He hadn’t looked like this since before they joined Seventeen. It was nice to see the old Seokmin back, but the reason behind it might not be what Seungkwan wanted it to be.   
  
Seokmin looked down at Vernon who was trying to even his breathing and looked up at the ceiling while lying on his back. The youngest boy’s arms were spread across the floor and his bags were almost covering his eyes. Seokmin spoke up, “Wonwoo told me something a couple of weeks ago.”

He then looked back at Seungkwan, wearing a soft smile. “He told me something about I was mourning, and that I’d understand eventually. I think I do now.”

Seungkwan’s eyebrows immediately twitched in concern. Vernon had even turned to lay on his side to look up at Seokmin. “What do you mean?”  
  
Seokmin chuckled, closing his eyes as he scratched his neck. “We changed, Kwan. We can’t go back to who we used to be.”  
  
The dots eventually connected in Seungkwan’s mind, but he didn’t want to say it out loud. He felt conflicted. Happy that Seokmin wasn’t drowning in depression anymore, but worried about what was actually happening to him.

“What’s your new name then?” Vernon propped up, resting his head on his palm. 

“I was thinking… Dokyeom.” Seokmin grinned. Dokyeom? Seungkwan felt really confused, but shouldn’t judge him for it. At least it wasn’t  _ that _ tacky. “I wanna work harder and be stronger, I guess that name can give me some motivation.”   
  
Seungkwan ruffled Seokmin’s hair, wanting to ignore Vernon’s ‘awww’ in the background. But he failed as soon as Vernon started to sing ‘ _ Kiss the Girl _ ’ from ‘ _ The Little Mermaid _ ’.

“Shut up!” Seungkwan barked at Vernon, making the other laugh.

“Make me.” He had already started to get up, ready to be chased to his grave by Seungkwan. Then Seungkwan sprinted up and the chase had begun. Seokmin laughed in the meantime. 

 

 

He shouldn’t have agreed to make marshmallows. He should’ve stayed in bed, pretending to be asleep despite how much Jeonghan tugged on his hair. But the damage was done and Seungkwan tried to roast marshmallows with Jeonghan in the kitchen.

Now, what happened priorly to this? You see, Seungkwan got too exhausted chasing Vernon across the house so he went back to his room and slept, hoping Vernon was hiding in a tree. He was proven wrong when he was awoken by Jeonghan who was poking his cheek and tugging his hair in an attempt to wake him up. Jeonghan said ‘help me make marshmallows’, and didn’t leave until Seungkwan walked downstairs with him. Of course the younger peeked back to see all three of his roommates dead asleep in their beds. He was kind of upset he had to leave the warm, comforting bed of his. But then again, Jeonghan’s hair pulling was annoying and he didn’t want to get weird bald spots.

“Why are we making marshmallows inside anyway?” Seungkwan asked, watching Jeonghan open a plastic bag full of the white confections. He crossed his arms, pouting. “Wouldn’t it be safer outdoors?”

“It would.” Jeonghan said, stabbing a fork into a marshmallow. He then did it again and handed the other fork to Seungkwan. “But we have a super complicated alarm system and I’m too lazy to to unlock and lock again.”   
  
Seungkwan huffed, grimacing as he looked down at the fork in his hand. He admired Jeonghan’s laziness sometimes, but why couldn’t he just ignore his need for roasted marshmallows at the ungodly hours of night?

The younger boy looked up at his trainer who seemed to look slightly impatient back at him. Jeonghan tilted his head, turning his doe shaped eyes down to Seungkwan’s free hand. Ah, so that’s what’s up. Seungkwan sighed and sat himself on a stool behind him, his back pressed against the kitchen island. He held up one finger and a small fire, pretty much candle size, was lit. Jeonghan giggled and held his stabbed marshmallow up tot he fire, but his smile soon died.

“I think it needs to be bigger…” Jeonghan thought outloud. He then held eyecontact with Seungkwan, as if he may have worded his sentence wrong. “The fire, I mean.”   
  
“I knew that.” Seungkwan chuckled, turning his hand with the palm up and a fire was soon started, covering his palm. “You’re awfully perverted, you know.”   
  
Jeonghan hummed and held his marshmallow over the fire. “You need to adapt to your environment, you know.”   
  
Seungkwan had a lot of questions after that statement. But he was too sleepy to do it, and moved his own marshmallow over the fire. He was starting to get sleepy again, but falling asleep on a stool while roasting marshmallows on his own hand was  _ not _ cute. He yawned and looked down at the marshmallows that started to grow a brown color. Thankfully, Jeonghan tried to keep him awake by carrying conversation.

“So, have you figured out why you burn yourself yet?” Seungkwan realized Jeonghan kind of sounded like an uncaring parent. Like the type of parent who’d read a newspaper and not look up when their kid came home from school, forcing themselves to ask something just to make the parent-child relationship going, but honestly not giving two cents. Or better yet, the parent that tried to be in trend with their kids and continuously trying to catch up to their kids because they realized the youthful years of their lives are long gone. The parent that dyed their hair once a month and had an instagram where they always tagged pictures of themselves from a college party with the tag #tbt. Maybe a mix of the two?   
  
“No… I know just as much about this as you do.” Seungkwan said, holding the marshmallow closer to his face to see if it was good enough to eat. He decided to move it back to the flame. “I’m not too stressed about it to be honest.”   
  
“It’s surprising how calm you are, considering it could literally kill you.” Jeonghan seemed legitimately concerned for Seungkwan. They both looked up at each other and held some form of intense eye contact. Seungkwan thought, maybe Jeonghan didn’t understand since he wasn’t a faultblood. After all, Seungkwan had lived his entire life with pyrokinesis and had always been used to concealing it. He had only burnt himself one time, but it didn’t feel like a big deal. A guess was he might just have to train harder to become immune, but he should maybe ask Seokmin how he did it. 

“Fuck!” Speaking of burning himself, Seungkwan threw his hand away as the burnt marshmallows dripped down on his palm. It was pure accident that his still burning calm got placed on the kitchen island behind him and a fire actually erupted. Jeonghan cursed and shoved Seungkwan away from danger, looking around for something to stop the fire. He took the first thing he could find, being a dirty bowl in the sink, and filled it with water. He then threw the water at the fire, but it didn’t help. Seungkwan felt slightly panicked, but surprisingly calm considering the situation. Maybe because he listened to Bolbbalgan4’s album the other day and he found his inner zen. did the same, taking some other dirty dishes and filling them with water before throwing it at the fire that continued to grow. 

“Hey, what’s all the noise about?” Seungkwan felt his heart race even more now, hearing Coups come closer to the kitchen. He heard sniffing before the oldest spoke up again. “Is something burning?”   
  
Jeonghan hissed a curse under his breath and moved himself in front of the fire, posing as if he was on ‘ _ America’s Next Top Model _ ’ and he didn’t want to get eliminated. Coups walked in just in time and saw Jeonghan with an arm in the air and his cheek resting on his shoulder. Jeonghan smiled as if there wasn’t chaos right behind him. “Just my love for you, that’s all.”

“Jeonghan why the _ fuck _ is there a bonfire in the kitchen.” Coups didn’t waste time to walk closer and, may he rest in peace, grabbed the pale Seungkwan by his arm. Seungkwan thought he might get the scolding of a lifetime, or even die right then and there. But Coups didn’t spare him a glance as he held his free hand towards the fire as the grip around Seungkwan’s arm tightened. 

Seungkwan could only stare as the fire suddenly died. Not only that, but the table in front of them hadn’t even been left with damage. Did Coups really just kill the fire? How did he do that? And  _ how _ did he reverse the damage?

Once it was all over, Coups sighed and let go of Seungkwan. Jeonghan only stared with wide eyes, and wide open mouth. Honestly, so did Seungkwan.

“You two, go to sleep.” Coups rubbed his neck, sparing the two one last glance before walking out of the kitchen again. His voice sounded tired, but not too irritated. Like he was used to it? Seungkwan and Jeonghan stared in silence before turning to each other. Once they felt like they could speak safely again, Seungkwan asked;   
  
“How did he do that?”   
  
Jeonghan shrugged, seeming confused as well. “I know Coups can copy other people’s powers by touching them, but I didn’t know he could reverse things like that.” 

The two looked down at the table again. It literally didn’t have one single burn mark. Not even water from the others attempt to save the table. Seungkwan even turned down to his hand to see only melted marshmallow was sticking onto him. He understood Coups had to touch him to replicate his pyrokinesis, but he didn’t understand how he had so much control of it. If he wasn’t wrong, this might have been the first time he even tried to control fire. Was Coups really that strong?

“You okay?” Jeonghan moved closer, examining the hand with melted sugar on. He grimaced. “Sorry about that.”   
  
Seungkwan looked up at him and shook his head. He carried a light tone in his voice, just to assure Jeonghan everything was okay. “It’s fine, it doesn’t hurt. Just feels sticky.”  
  
Jeonghan chuckled. “Ew.”   
  
“Not like that, you pervert.” Seungkwan laughed, moving to wash his hand clean from the burnt marshmallow.  


“Well, it was nice having a small campfire with you. See you tomorrow.” Jeonghan held a hand on Seungkwan’s shoulder to hold him still and kissed his cheek before hurrying to the stairs. Seungkwan groaned in disgust as it was a wet kiss and rubbed his face.   
  
“What was that for?” He turned to look at Jeonghan, only to see the look in his face and understand. He just rubbed his face with his wet, sugary burnt hand. Jeonghan wore a shiteating grin again and rushed up the stairs, Seungkwan cursing under his breath as he had to wash his face too now. What a great night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hii!!! I'm so sorry for taking forever to update... School still wants me to choke, this time on bricks.
> 
> Seventeen!!! Comeback!!! Boom boom!!! Wow!!! I can't!! I just need a moment to talk about how much I am proud of Jeonghan's improvement in his vocals! I've been a Jeonghan stan since Adore U so I'm an emotional bean tbh.
> 
> Also, I've seen peoples reasons to this fic on twitter!!! I'm so happy to see the feedback, don't be afraid to comment here!! <3 It makes me soooo happy, it makes me wanna work harder on the fic!! 
> 
> Anyway, next chapter is kind of a filler chapter, I just need some preparation before the plot actually /actually/ begins kfkl
> 
> and yes, I steal jokes from the internet to not make the fic seem like the saddest thing ever.
> 
>  
> 
> Also!! I'm planning a new fic, but more info will come of it when TFIOB is nearing its end. Just wanted to let you knoooooooowww


	13. Chapter 6

A couple of days had passed since that night. They were silent days. They were quick days. November had passed already and it was soon Christmas. Snow had fallen and covered the forest in a thick white blanket. The other day the boys (A.K.A Seungkwan, Vernon, Seokmin and The8) had made snowmen which would later be destroyed by the others (A.K.A Jeonghan and Hoshi).  
  
Seungkwan looked out from the windows in the living room, down at the corpses that once were snowmen, and sighed. He had cuddled himself into a corner in the couch, two blankets wrapped tightly around him with a big cup of hot chocolate in his hands. Vernon and Seokmin - no wait, Dokyeom - were outside trying to fix the poor snowmen. They tried to reverse their cruel fate as Vernon was rebuilding one of them by hand and Dokyeom using his powers to make another one as good as new.   
  
Of course Seungkwan wouldn’t go out there again. He was content indoors, safe from the cold. The8 had decided to be moody about the snowmen to Mingyu as the two were outside as well, leaning against a tree while talking to each other. The8 wore a sour expression and Mingyu laughed. Seungkwan would be angry and rant about this too but the only one he felt like ranting to was Joshua, and Joshua was close with Jeonghan so he would probably just laugh at the situation instead of feeling pity for the younger boy.  
  
Seungkwan held the hot chocolate up to his mouth and took a sip, looking up as he heard steps descending the stairs. Dino was scratching his cheek as he walked into the living room. The two greeted each other by nodding in acknowledgement of each other’s presence and Dino then sat himself down on the couch. He looked out of the big glass windows to see the snowman hospital still in full action and tilted his head. Seungkwan noticed this and placed the cup back down to his lap.  
  
“Jeonghan and Hoshi ruined our snowmen earlier.” Dino nodded almost instantly when getting the explanation, as if he understood what they were going through. He sat silently and watched as Dokyeom was making another snowman that most likely was a mockery of the snowmen killers. It appeared the new snowman held a gun in it’s hand, and it was clearly a portrayal of Jeonghan. You had to give it to him though, Dokyeom was good at making snowmen.  
  
“This is going to be your first Christmas here…” Seungkwan hadn’t realized the two had been sitting in a heavy silence until Dino spoke up. Hearing the younger boy’s voice for the first time almost made him feel sad, as Dino sounded very young. Then again, he was only a year younger than Seungkwan.   
  
“Yeah.” Seungkwan nodded, not noticing his brows were in a small frown. He wondered if this was the first Christmas without his family too, or if he had been here for enough years to not care about it. His questions were soon to be answered though.  
  
“We don’t really decorate or have a tree up… Wonwoo tries to make a nice dinner but since no one cares about celebrating not much else happens.” The younger boy said, looking down at his lap. Seungkwan just nodded, somewhat relieved he didn’t have to decorate a house this size with a bunch of small elves.   
  
“Do the others stay home together then?” Seungkwan asked, mainly just to keep conversation going and see if he could get to know Dino better. Dino nodded, but then shook his head.

“Sometimes. Sometimes not.” Well, so much for getting to know Dino better. But he had to work with it.  
  
“How many Christmases have you spent here?” If he got a vague answer again he might as well wash his face with the hot chocolate. But Seungkwan crossed his fingers and stared as Dino turned his head up to Seungkwan to look at him. His eyes had taken on a wider shape, though not enough to be displaying shock or surprise.  
  
“Three.” Dinos eyebrows furrowed and he looked down at Seungkwan’s cup instead, almost as if eye contact was a struggle for him. What were his powers again? High pressure tolerance and breathing underwater, right? Not like he could read minds by having eye contact, right? Ah, maybe Dino just really didn’t feel comfortable with eye contact…  
  
“Is that how many years you’ve been here?” To confirm Seungkwan’s question, Dino nodded. If Seungkwan still wasn’t too terrible at math, and remembering that Coups started the organization when he was seventeen while currently being twenty one, Dino would be a member who joined during their ‘debut’ year. But if Dino was seventeen now, this meant he must’ve joined when he was thirteen. This felt really messed up.  
  
After solving his math problem, he felt a little bit sad too continue the conversation. Seungkwan nodded, frowning. He _really_ wanted to get to know Dino more for some reason. There was something incredibly intriguing about him, but he really didn’t wanna push the kid’s buttons.  
  
“Guys, making snowmen with this guy isn’t fun at all!” Vernon’s voice suddenly burst into the room, surprising both boys on the couch. They looked over to the door to see Vernon with white snowflakes on his hair and beanie with Seok- Dokyeom next to him with a wide smile plastered onto his face. The8 and Mingyu were there too, already having taken off their jackets. Mingyu then rushed into the kitchen, mumbling something about smelling hot chocolate. The8 followed.  
  
“You’re just jealous my snowmen look better than yours.” He said and kicked his shoes off. Vernon wore a sour expression, making both Seungkwan and Dino look out the window again to see three very decent snowmen and one very, very sad excuse of a snowman. Seungkwan couldn’t help but chuckle.  
  
“Hey, what’s that for?” Vernon had apparently moved to stand behind the couch and wore a very judgemental expression aimed at Seungkwan. Seungkwan just giggled and stuck out his tongue.   
  
“Just accept the fact that he’s more talented with snow and ice than you are.” Vernon rolled his eyes and turned to Dino for some sort of sympathy. Though he was given none of that. Dino just shrugged his shoulders and Vernon whines, saying it was unfair as he was the only non-faultblood. He then left with his head hanging and moved to the kitchen, probably to ask Mingyu for some hot chocolate. Seungkan looked over at Dokyeom who just shook his head and walked over to them.   
  
“So what’s happening here?” Dokyeom placed a hand on Seungkan’s neck, God forbid, resulting Seungkwan in almost flipping his cup over and spilling all contents on the floor. He did also scream.  
  
“What was that for?” Seungkwan pouted, placing his cup on the table, just to be safe, and looked angrily over at Dokyeom who just grinned and laughed at his ‘funny’ prank. His fingers were literally hurting how cold it felt on him. How could he endure that?  
  
“Ugh, that was so cold.” Seungkwan shivered a bit. “You’re like Jack Frost or something, it’s wild.”  
  
Seungkwan was obviously too upset to notice that Dino was smiling at them.

 

  
  


“I never considered myself to be that strong, but if you’d help, I think I’ll improve a lo-”  
  
“Seungkwan, what are you doing?”   
  
Seungkwan jumped a couple of the meters in the air and turned around to see Jeonghan standing by the doorframe, confusion all over his face. The younger boy felt his soul leave his body and he was still in an adrenaline kick from the ‘jumpscare’. He had to get himself together soon though, as Jeonghan seemed to be waiting for an answer.  
  
“I- Uhm... I-” Shit, how was he going to say this, he didn’t wanna hurt Jeonghan’s feelings. Seungkwan’s heart dropped and he saw how the raised brow in Jeonghan’s face kind of dropped.  
  
“You…?” Jeonghan tilted his head, crossing his arms. Seungkwan decided to swallow his hesitation.  
  
“I… I want Coups to help me in training.” Seungkwan heard how his own voice died down and the fear swallowed him whole. He could already feel himself being shot in the butt by Jeonghan’s gun. And no, not in that way. Pervert.  
  
To Seungkwan’s surprise though, Jeonghan didn’t look sad. Instead his face lit up. “Really?”  
  
Seungkwan was cautious before nodding.

  
“Oh man, you should’ve told me earlier!” Jeonghan walked into the room, grabbing Seungkwan’s hand and smiled. “He’ll be so happy to help you.”  
  
The two walked out of Seungkwan’s room and down the hall, although the younger boy was still surprised by Jeonghan’s reaction to it all. Wouldn’t he be worried that Seungkwan pretty much wanted to replace him? Maybe their feelings were mutual after all, and Jeonghan didn’t wanna train a tiny fireball like Seungkwan. Seungkwan almost felt good about this. Almost being the keyword.   
  
He regretted his life choices when he suddenly stood in front of Coups, whose dark circles under his eyes made him look as threatening as ever. Honestly, he looked extremely tired. Must be tiring to be the leader of a faultblood gang.  
  
“Say what you wanted to say.” Jeonghan whispered to Seungkwan, making a chill run up the younger’s spine. They stood in front of Coups, in the hallway of the underground floor. The dim light given off, and the tall brooding man in front of him, made Seungkwan lose all confidence he had just a couple of minutes ago.   
  
“I…” Seungkwan looked up at Coups, noticing the impatience in his look. Shit. It might have helped a little when Jeonghan squeezed his shoulder, almost like a supportive parent.   
  
Seungkwan exhaled, feeling too anxious now. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, only to look at the ground. “Can you… Help me.. Train?”  
  
His words died down at the end, again. This wasn’t easy at all. He felt regret creep up on him, it would be easier if he just stuck with Jeonghan as his trainer. But then again, Coups could teach him so much that Jeonghan physically would be unable to. Seungkwan wanted to become stronger and there was only one way for him to do that now.  
  
“Seungkwan.” Seungkwan looked back up at Coups almost immediately, almost as if his head was forced up. He was met with Coups’ dark eyes and was suddenly filled with hope. His eyes looked soft, and it definitely helped when the younger saw a smile played on the leader’s face. “I’d be more than willing to help.”  
  
If Seungkwan didn’t feel like his feet were frozen in place, he’d be jumping all over the place right now. Instead, an awfully bright smile settled on his lips and he exhaled, signifying a heavy weight had been lifted off of him. He even felt Jeonghan pat his back before letting go.  
  
Despite how small the movement was, Coups still seemed to notice. He shifted his look in between the two, then asked, “So Jeonghan will no longer be training you?”  
  
Seungkwan turned back to look at Jeonghan, only to feel his heart break a little. Despite him smiling, he noticed how the black hair on Jeonghan’s fringe made a failed attempt to cover the hurt in his eyes. Obviously Jeonghan would be upset about this, why did Seungkwan think otherwise?  
  
“J-Jeonghan has been training me since I got here.” Seungkwan looked back at Coups, swallowing “I think his experience with me would aid a lot.”  
  
Coups nodded, a thin smile on his lips. He turned to Jeonghan, “Looks like he’s grown attached to you.”  
  
Seungkwan couldn’t even reply before feeling Jeonghan’s arms wrap around him, hearing him giggle. “Seungkwan would never fully replace me!”  
  
Now, the entire situation got into his head. Jeonghan was still his trainer, but now Coups was an addition. He didn’t even know how the couple’s dynamics worked. Judging by former experiences, training would probably be more of an adventure than it already was. Oh, how he was looking forward to it.

 

  
  
“I must say, you’ve really improved. You’ve worked hard.” Wonwoo clapped his hands together, smiling fondly at Dokyeom’s work. They had been training outside due to the cold weather and all the snow around. Since it was risky, they stuck close the the house in case of something happening.  
  
“Thanks.” Dokyeom said, blushing a little from the praise. It was true he had improved a lot in the last couple of weeks. It was as if a weight he had been carrying had been lost and he regained some of his self esteem. He had a long way to go before having the same amount of control as Seungkwan, but at least he was improving! To be honest, Dokyeom had been in high spirits a lot recently. Wonwoo knew why, and it comforted him knowing the younger had accepted the change.  
  
The two looked over at the ground, where snow had been pushed away after Dokyeom’s nice display of his powers. The earth underneath looked like a sore thumb surrounded by the white snow. Dokyeom could manipulate snow easily now, but ice was still a struggle. Dokyeom could barely care though, as the fact that he was improving was enough to make him happy.  
  
“You might be able to defrost the car at this pace.” Wonwoo muttered. Unlike Dokyeom, who was just wearing a thin shirt and jeans, Wonwoo was wearing a scarf and a hat that both contributed to cover his face up. He also wore a thick jacket and gloves. It kind of reminded him of Seungkwan, but in a way Dokyeom had to accept the fact that he was the odd one for not reacting to the cold the same way as the others did.  
  
“You flatter me too much. I bet Seungkwan would do a better job at that.” Despite the fact that Seungkwan almost burnt the house down the other day, everyone had some sort of use for his powers. Especially during winter, having a literal human torch in your home could come in handy. And yes, everyone knew about the marshmallow incident. But no one held it against him since incidents happened frequently. Apparently Woozi tilted a vase with his powers on accident when he was pissed at Hoshi over something. And apparently that’s why they don’t have vases in the house anymore. He had also heard something about The8 trying to do a funny trick with Jun by sticking his finger through Jun’s cheek, but somehow actually got his finger stuck there. It took Joshua about 3 hours to fix it.  
  
“No, I mean it. You’ve not only done progress with your powers, but also your mentality. I’m glad it helped, as it took me the same advice to get control of my powers.” Wonwoo leaned against a tree, hands in pockets. Dokyeom could see how his cheeks and the tip of his nose had gained color from being out in the cold. A question popped up in his mind, and it confused him why he hadn’t asked before.  
  
“What powers do you have, by the way?” He tilted his head slightly, wondering how he had never seen Wonwoo display his powers for him before. After all, Dokyeom had been here for a little over a month and been training with Wonwoo almost every day. How could he not have thought about it once?  
  
Wonwoo exhaled, some fog escaping his mouth. He then chuckled. “It’s kind of complicated. You sure you wanna hear?”  
  
Dokyeom noticed how Wonwoo’s foot seemed to tap a little against the snow. Now he was very intrigued. The younger nodded, eyes not leaving Wonwoo, “Yes.”

 

 

“Wow… Jeonghan didn’t lie when he said you’re a borderline arsonist.” Coups said, looking conflicted at the burning punching bag. It was like the fire in the kitchen all over again. Seungkwan was trying to reverse his powers, like Coups had advised him to, but he was having a hard time as the fire kept growing instead of shrinking.  
  
“Wait, when did you tell him that?” Seungkwan turned to Jeonghan, finally giving up. Coups took over, again, and reversed the fire at ease.  
  
“He talks about you all the time.” Coups said, scratching his jaw while glancing over at the man in question. Jeonghan has puffed his cheeks while blushing, looking upset at Coups for exposing him.  
  
“I thought what happened between us stayed between us.” Jeonghan crossed his arms, turning his back to the older man. Then he looked over at Seungkwan, leaning closer as if to whisper. “It’s not true, I only talk about you 50% of the time.”  
  
Seungkwan chuckled, shaking his head. He looked over at Coups in order to get his attention, as he seemed to focus mostly on Jeonghan. “Are you sure I can reverse this? What if it’s someone else’s powers?...”  
  
During the time of Coups helping Seungkwan with training, the two had melted the ice between them. Okay, Jeonghan did indeed help with warming them up to each other. But nonetheless, they grew a little closer and Seungkwan wasn’t too afraid to ask him questions, or look at his direction, anymore.  
  
Coups shook his head. “No. When you’re strong enough, you can reverse your powers. It’s about patience, don’t be too upset that you haven’t gotten it down yet.”  
  
His words comforted Seungkwan a little. He knew Coups was strong and most likely spoke of experience. He should be patient. He shouldn’t be so greedy for power. Seungkwan exhaled, realizing how he had been trying to hard to get so busy in improving that he hadn’t actually considered how to improve. He grew frustrated at himself, frustrated at how blind he had been. Ugh, nothing was helping right now.  
  
“We’ll try again, okay?” Seungkwan looked up, thrown out of his thoughts by Coups’ hand on his shoulder. “It takes time, but if you’re willing I’ll teach you, okay? You need to be patient though.”  
  
Seungkwan frowned a little, looking at the punching bag in front of them. He nodded and straightened his back a little. “Okay.”   
  
Coups let go and turned to the punching bag, “Good. Now let’s go.”  
  
Seungkwan threw fire at the punching bag’s direction, watching as the fire spread again. He held his arm outstretched, fingers spread. Slowly he curling his fingers, genuinely hoping for the best.

 

 

“Honestly, it still feels kind of weird to call you Dokyeom.” Seungkwan said. Seungkwan sat on his bed, looking out of the window as it had begun snowing again. Dokyeom was in the bathroom washing his face, the door open. The sun was already setting as it was far into the afternoon now and the yellow light from the bathroom lamp blended nicely with the sharp colors from the sunset reflecting onto the floor. The room looked warm. Too bad it was literally snowing outside and the heating system was wrecked in the house.  
  
The water running from the tap stopped after a last splash being heard. Dokyeom most likely dried his face, but soon replied. “Really? I mean, I guess it’s a given since you’re used to call me Seokmin.”  
  
Seungkwan pouted a little. He looked over to the bathroom to see Dokyeom walk out, turning off the light in the bathroom. “I guess. I hope I’ll get used to it soon. The others are already used to it.”  
  
“Don’t worry about it.” Dokyeom chuckled. “I’m a patient man.”  
  
Seungkwan cringed from the ideas he got after Dokyeom said that. But he felt kind of weird how easily Dokyeom had given up his name and everything it meant. Then again, the two had completely different coping mechanisms. Seungkwan really learnt a lot more about his friend nowadays, things he never actually expected to learn. It almost made some invisible rift between them more prominent. It was scary how different the two actually were.  
  
“If it comforts you, I won’t be hurt if you accidentally call me Seok from time to time.” He said, smiling at Seungkwan as he sat down on the bed next to him.  
  
Seungkwan hummed, looking down at the distance between them. He then turned his eyes up to Dokyeom’s hands. He thought about his training session with Coups and Jeonghan, wondering how Dokyeom and Seungkwan’s skills both could be so different from each other. They were so different. Seungkwan felt something cold grow inside him and he exhaled.  
  
“You’re strong, stronger than you think.” Seungkwan said, looking up at Dokyeom. The two stared at each other, almost as if no more words were able to come out. But Dokyeom seemed confused, or caught off guard, so Seungkwan continued. “You’re able to do so much, compared to how we started. You’re even immune to the cold.”  
  
Seungkwan wanted to know if Dokyeom could defrost things, but his own self esteem would probably shatter if he were to find out. To be honest, Seungkwan didn’t even know why he was talking about this. He just started to feel so insecure about his slow improvement and couldn’t help but compare himself to literally everyone. Dokyeom seemed to understand the memo, as the younger boy felt Dokyeom’s hold hand hold his significantly warmer one.  
  
“Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Dokyeom’s soothing voice was all he needed, and he realized that as soon as the other spoke up. “You’ll figure it out. Soon you’ll be able to walk through fire like it’s nothing.”  
  
Seungkwan smiled, copying the smile that had already been set on Dokyeom’s face. “I hope so.”  
  
“What do you mean ‘I hope so’? You know I’m right.” Dokyeom laughed, making Seungkwan rub his forehead as he chuckled.  
  
“What makes you say that, _oh so_ wise man Dokyeom?” As soon as he said that, he was attacked by two cold hands tickling him. Seungkwan screamed, trying to bury himself in the bed in an attempt to hide from the other. He wasn’t usually that ticklish, but considering the fact that Dokyeom’s hands were so cold they only sent chills wherever they touched, Seungkwan was on the verge of crying.  
  
“Stop! Your fingers- will be grilled-” Seungkwan muttered between laughing, trying to wriggle his body away from Dokyeom. His face was pressed against a pillow as if it would protect him, which it didn’t.  
  
“Oh, I’m _so_ scared!” Despite the sarcasm, he stopped let go of Seungkwan. The younger boy was panting, hugging a pillow in a form of protection just in case. He looked up at Dokyeom and stuck out his tongue at him, receiving a chuckle in return.  
  
“Be careful, I got more where that came from.” Dokyeom said, getting up and rushing out of the room. Seungkwan soon got up, leaving the pillow behind and chased after the other boy.

 

 

Dino didn’t lie when he said they didn’t celebrate Christmas. Seungkwan didn’t mind it though. Or well, he was kind of upset not being able to celebrate with his family. He missed messing with his sisters and opening presents while his grandma told him he had grown since the last time she saw him, which usually was a month before or so.   
  
The members of Seventeen were separated during Christmas night, half of them in the living room watching _‘A Christmas Carol’_ while eating popcorn and the other half either being dead asleep in their rooms or outside trying to make snow angels. The latter was confirmed as Mingyu had just rolled himself in the snow, Woozi filming it. They were still outside, now meddling with Dokyeom’s snowmen. Dokyeom couldn’t complain as he was upstairs, asleep. Seungkwan didn’t really care about the snowmen, as he had already gone through the depression of seeing them die when Hoshi and Jeonghan both mauled them heartlessly.  
  
Instead he was busy paying attention the movie, ignoring Vernon’s complaints that he was heavy. For your information, it was only Seungkwan’s head that was resting on Vernon’s stomach. The rest of his body was lying on top of Wonwoo, who didn’t complain at all. Vernon should just suck it up. Just to piss Vernon off a little bit more, Seungkwan rubbed his head against Vernon’s stomach. He chuckled as he heard a groan.   
  
Despite not celebrating Christmas the traditional way, Seungkwan was content with how domestic everything seemed. He really enjoyed this life, and enjoyed every moment spent with his new family. He liked Jeonghan’s weird jokes, Hoshi’s questionable pranks, Mingyu’s snoring and even Woozi’s occasional, and rhythmical, fingers tapping against a nearby table. It all had a blended into a nice flow, a familiar pattern. The new life he and Dokyeom had, despite how scary it seemed in the beginning, was probably something he didn’t want to ever trade. He knew now he probably wouldn’t leave Seventeen if he had the chance. He was perfectly content here. Everything had gotten a perfect balance, perfect harmony. Everything was perfectly well.  
  
“No wonder that old man is bitter, who named their kid Ebenezer Scrooge? His parents probably hated him.” Jun said with crossed arms, The8 sitting in front of him on the floor. The8 laughed, as did the others. Jeonghan defended the main character of the movie, though.  
  
“Don’t shit on my man Ebenezer! You fuck with him, you fuck with me.” Seungkwan sighed, listening as the movie was deafened out by the bickering of the older boys on the couch. He was going to stick to his mindset though. He loved his new family. So… So much…   
  
“Jeonghan we said _no guns_ in the living room!” When would this night be over?

 

 

Believe it or not, Dokyeom could hear the ruckus downstairs. He tried to get some sleep but it didn’t work out, all credit went to Jeonghan and Jun. But then again, it was cool. He had no problems being unable to escape his late night thoughts at all. It was all cool.  
  
Dokyeom sighed and sat up, deciding to check his phone just to kill some time until the silence settled back in. Since he and Seungkwan joined, they weren’t allowed to have social media. Not like they used to though. For obvious reasons. Woozi had full control of all electronics in the house, including their phones. He saw everything they did on their phones, who they called, what their recent searches on the internet were… It sounded creepy and incredibly invasive of their privacy but it was for the best. There was _no way_ they’d risk getting found out.  
  
For that simple reason, the only social media Dokyeom had gotten was a new instagram which only had a picture of Snoopy as an icon. He mainly used it to check up on old friends and family. Yes, Woozi could see it. And yes, he could see the DMs too. Dokyeom hadn’t contacted any of them though, so the latter hadn’t felt the need to comment on it either.  
  
Dokyeom found himself going through a childhood friend’s instagram, only to be caught by surprise. He saw a picture of said childhood friend with his parents. Dokyeom’s parents. His parents were standing on each side of the childhood friend, all wearing small, sad smiles along with winter coats. He clicked on it and read the caption.  
  
 __“Met up with the parents of an old friend. They’re strong, I wish I could be the same. I hope you the best for the coming new year. Lee Seokmin, come back home!!”  
  
And of course, the comments wishing his parents the best. Dokyeom sighed. He looked back up at the picture, unable to see if any significant changes had happened to his parents as the filter that smoothened out their features didn’t really do any help.  
  
He gave up, placing his phone on his lap and looked ahead of him. He saw how Vernon’s bed in front of him was unmade, as always, and some of his schoolbooks were scattered on the blanket. Dokyeom tilted his head, looking a little closer. He knew Vernon was homeschooled, as he wanted to study in university later. Of course, neither Seungkwan or Dokyeom had payed mind to continue their studies. They may or may not have enough on their plate as it was. Just thinking about school made him mentally exhausted.  
  
Dokyeom found himself sighing again, lying back down on the bed. He felt his head sink slowly into the pillow and it felt relaxing. The sinking part, that is. The rest sucked. He was lying if he said he didn’t miss his old life, his friends and parents… Maybe even school. Okay, he was content without school. But there was still something itching in him about it all.  
  
Seokmin was gone, he knew that. He was Dokyeom now. He was another person, a new self. But he still missed his- or, Seokmin’s family. He missed Seokmin’s friends. He missed being a normal teenager, despite having to hide his powers constantly.  
  
Ah, the silence had finally conquered. Maybe he could get some sleep now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rereading this fic is so embarrassing.. There's so many typos, I'm really sorry!! I'll do my best to beta it now lol...
> 
> To be honest I'm not very pleased with this chapter, I kind of see it as a filler as well. Hopefully next chapter will be up soon, but you never know with me, as I'm!!! 3 steps away from dying bc of school...


	14. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: semi-graphic violence & mention of child abuse

New years eve happened. They couldn’t celebrate with fireworks for obvious reasons, but did succeed in roasting marshmallows outside. All members had eaten marshmallows together. It was nice and cozy. But as it had all been calm and nice, the end of it was inevitable.   
  
Coups had been mentally preparing Dokyeom and Seungkwan for their first mission. It started with stricter training and enduring more stressful environments. It wasn’t exactly military training, but it was extreme. Now, Coups had called them to join in ‘behind the scenes’ on a mission. Seungkwan was terrified. The only information he had gotten was that they had a meeting with a former acquaintance. Those words were enough to make him shit bricks.

Seungkwan and Dokyeom followed Coups into the black van. It had gotten dark long ago, as it was about 11pm and the sun was pretty much always gone during winter. Seungkwan shivered a little, clad in his usual two scarves and big coat. He jumped into the van, being met with Mingyu in the driver’s seat, Jeonghan looking down at his palms, Woozi fiddling with a laptop and Hoshi poking at his tie. Seungkwan was confused, but too busy shutting the van door to notice. And yes, he still had issues with that door.

“What’s up with the tie?” Dokyeom, thankfully, asked in Seungkwan’s place. The tie Hoshi wore, which he usually never took the effort to take on, had a small gem like thing in the center. Hoshi grinned, patting Woozi’s back roughly which disrupted Woozi’s typing into the laptop keyboard.

“Our tech geek here is installing a camera.” Hoshi pointed toward the gem attached to the tie. “You’ll be watching the mission from the laptop, that’ll be easier for you.”   
  
Seungkwan nodded, finally getting the door shut. He sat back next to Dokyeom and felt color drain from his face as Jeonghan was holding up different bullets. Where they going to kill someone? He didn’t notice that he had scooted closer to Dokyeom, but was greeted by the other’s body temperature rubbed up next to him.

The car engine ignited and they soon drove out to their destination. Coups mumbled something in Jeonghan’s ear, making the latter pout and place down the bullets. Jeonghan crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, wearing a sour expression directed at Coups. The leader, ignoring Jeonghan, turned to look at Seungkwan and Dokyeom who were full of questions.

“Okay, so… Hoshi and Jeonghan will be meeting an old acquaintance and-”   
  
“Don’t lie.” Woozi interrupted, still tapping pale fingers onto different keys. Coups sighed.

“You remember the mission I and some other members operated on when you first joined? We found out one of our targets during the raid escaped. Jeonghan and Hoshi are going to track him down and… deal with him.” The way Coups paused definitely made clear that Seungkwan and Dokyeom were about to watch a gory live stream. Seungkwan’s stomach was way too weak for that.

He felt like the car was getting closer, but it was hard to look outside from the shaded windows. Seungkwan swallowed, looking around the van before starting. “So… Was he a member?”

“Not one of ours.” Coups shook his head. “He was in the non-faultblood gang.”   
  
The tone in Coups’s voice was all too serious for the boys to take. They both gulped and sat silently under the rest of the car ride. 

They knew they had arrived when the car took a strong turn and stopped, but hearing Mingyu say they had arrived was also quite a giveaway. Woozi had done the best in his ability to track down the guy's whereabouts, while also making sure the camera on Hoshi’s tie worked, so Mingyu had to park the car two blocks away from a bar the guy would be in. 

The members casually exchanged ‘good lucks’ as Hoshi and Jeonghan got ready to head out. As if taking a minor exam at school. As Hoshi went to open the van door and jump out, Jeonghan grabbed a golf club from the floor and followed. Seungkwan managed to feel his stomach turn before they had left.

Before he had time to treat his upset stomach, Woozi turned the laptop around on his lap so the others could see. They saw everything from Hoshi’s - or his tie’s - perspective. Since it was dark, they could only see when something was illuminated by streetlamps. This was the first time Seungkwan and Dokyeom were in town after joining Seventeen, but they were in the ‘bad’ parts of town. That being said, it was the part of town no one really cared about because of the amount of faultblood families there. Crime rate was high but police didn’t care unless if some faultblood did something to make them land on the headlines of a newspaper. But then again, who would cover news about faultbloods?   
  
“In here?” Jeonghan’s voice filled the van, as he looked over at Hoshi, both of them standing in front of a door to a bar.

“Cover that thing up.” Hoshi was heard sighing. Jeonghan was seen rolling his eye and doing his best to shove half the golf club up his sleeve. Jeez, what a mess.  
  
“Better?” Jeonghan frowned up at Hoshi, who nodded in return.  
  
“Better.” He smiled and opened the door. The two were met with the stench of alcohol and dim light. And of course, a shady bar wasn’t shady without the shady guests and the shady bartender behind the counter.

“You see him?” Jeonghan looked around, whispering to Hoshi. Good thing the shady music playing and chatter of the crowd in the bar didn’t blow their cover completely. But then again, no one seemed to care about the two who just entered, except for a couple of people who glanced at Hoshi due to his blue hair. Maybe he should’ve dyed it before going to a shady bar.

“There.” Things went quickly after that. The target spotted Hoshi and his blue hair (he really should’ve dyed it) and rushed into the closest thing to him, the mens’ bathroom. Hoshi and Jeonghan rushed through the crowd of people and into the bathroom. Of course they were met with a dim light, but also silence. All stalls in the bathroom were closed and they knew their ‘friend’ would be in one of them. 

Seungkwan felt uncomfortable, hearing Jeonghan chant some children's rhyme while opening each stall slowly with the club. He was literally pressing against Dokyeom by now, as if he was watching a horror movie. He glanced around to see Woozi with his usual calm expression, Mingyu probably texting someone and Coups rubbing his temples while leaning forward in his seat. Kind of like how Woozi did when they were in the van for the first time. Probably some classic leader pose?

By the time Seungkwan forced his eyes back onto the laptop screen, Jeonghan and Hoshi had gotten the target out of his hiding spot and he was threatening them with a knife. Firing a gun would be shady, so he was actually kind of smart by only having a knife available. It would also make it easier for Jeonghan and Hoshi to beat him black and blue.  
  
“Leave me alone, mutant!” The guy yelled, waving his knife around in a pretty pitiful way. Jeonghan sighed.  
  
“You’re wasting my time. Get on your knees like a good boy and say you’re sorry already.” Jeonghan tapped his foot impatiently, looking at the sickly pale guy in front of him.

“No! Never to you abominations!” Through the small laptop, Seungkwan could see a bloodvessel pop in Jeonghan’s forehead.

“Watch your mouth!” The club swung against the dirty mirror in the bathroom, cracking it instantly. Jeonghan wore a frightening grin, his teeth gritted together. It looked as if they’d break at any moment. The target had dropped his knife as soon as the golf club hit the mirror, scrambled up on his knees. Wow, Jeonghan’s impact.

Jeonghan inched closer, making sure to hit the floor with the club for every step he took, as if it was a walking cane. He forced the guys face up with the cold iron club, looking down at a trembling pale face. The grin was still plastered on his face.

“Aww, he’s upset.” Jeonghan dropped his frightening demeanor and tilted his head, pouting. Hoshi stepped closer, kneeling down to be around the same level as the target. He cupped the other’s jaw with his hand and stared at him with cold, sharp eyes.

“Listen buddy, you took some information from us that you weren’t allowed to take. Your punishment was due, but you ran away. Care to pay up?” Hoshi’s voice was surprisingly soothing considering the situation. The van was uncomfortably silent. Seungkwan felt heavy, his eyes glued on the target’s trembling face. But as the trembling had disappeared and the target furrowed his brows, gritting his teeth in anger. He spat, presumably hitting Hoshi’s face as it didn’t hit the camera.

Hoshi sighed, stepped back and wiped the saliva away. He leaned against a closed bathroom stall and waved a hand at Jeonghan. “Have fun.”

Jeonghan smiled, casting one last look at Hoshi and even winking into the little camera attached to the tie before straight up hammering the metal club on the culprit, who hadn’t gone up as the knife he might still have been too scared to get up. That, or he knew there was no way escaping a certain maniac with a golf club in his hands.

Seungkwan winced every time he heard metal hit flesh, automatically turning away. He glanced to his side to see how Dokyeom had lost all color in his face now, eyes wide and glued onto the laptop screen.

Seungkwan was forced out of, or into, his terror when he heard Coups speak up. He turned to the older to be greeted to an nauseas looking Coups.  
  
“It’s important you watch. Soon you’ll be out doing these things.” His lips looked dry, but there was still a look in his eyes that didn’t say it was shocking. It was like he was used to it, he knew it had to be done. But he still didn’t like it.

Thankfully, when Seungkwan looked back towards the laptop Jeonghan had already dropped the club as the target was lying in a pool of his own blood. It was a gross sight, but he didn’t need to suffer through seeing the beating anymore. It was also appreciated that Hoshi hadn’t moved from his position, not allowing the others to see the scene in detail due to the angle it was being filmed in.

He saw Jeonghan look down at the target, his black-clad foot rotating the poor beat up man’s head from side to side. He saw a smile playing on Jeonghan’s lips, and he felt the breakfast threaten to come up for real this time.

“You look so hot like that, all red and panting.” Jeonghan said, kneeling down to cup the target’s face with his hands. “What have we learnt from today, huh?” 

Obviously the only thing that could be uttered from the half dead guy was whimpers and cries. Jeonghan pressed the other’s cheeks together, giggling at the sight. He even cooed as if he was handling a toddler, but then Hoshi seemed to get impatient.

He stepped closer and held Jeonghan back from ‘playing’ any more. Jeonghan whined, already having stained himself in blood and it was only a matter of seconds before he’d start smearing the blood in his face like face paint.  
  
“I think he knows not to fuck with us anymore, right?” Hoshi turned from Jeonghan to the guy who was currently falling in and out of consciousness. He couldn’t even reply. Hoshi got Jeonghan up and they looked at each other, assuming cleaning the blood off wouldn’t be of use. The faucets looked shady. Hoshi passed his jacket to Jeonghan to cover up the worst of the blood and took the club up.

“If we’re lucky they won't beat us up for messing up the bathroom.” Hoshi said shaking the club a little to get as much blood as possible away.

“Shouldn't we at least be polite and take the trash out?” Jeonghan asked, fixing his hair in the mirror after taking the jacket on. Hoshi chuckled and shook his head.     
  
“I don’t wanna waste my time.” He handed the club back to Jeonghan and proceeded out of the bathroom, the older boy following. 

Seungkwan shut his eyes and exhaled, suddenly feeling anxious. How would the bar take this? All the people in there? Who knew if Hoshi and Jeonghan would be beaten as badly as the guy in the restroom? Before he knew it the two had returned into the van, but in a rush. Mingyu started the engine and drove off quickly, it was obvious someone had tried to chase the two out of the bar. Seungkwan felt like his heart stopped, and it wouldn’t start again until they had passed three streets or something.

Eventually Seungkwan opened his eyes, head resting against Dokyeom’s shoulder. He smelled iron. Actually, the entire van stank of blood. Hoshi was taking his tie off, Woozi helping him with getting the camera off without it getting ruined. Jeonghan was rubbing his hands with a wet towel (when did they get that?) and Coups was looking down at some blood stained papers.

Did Seungkwan faint? How much had he missed? He looked up at Dokyeom who seemed to have regained color in his face, but still frightened after the whole ordeal. Seungkwan got up, guessing he must’ve fainted. Damn, that was embarrassing. The car reeked of gore. Mingyu had an open window by his side, but it wasn’t enough. But they all knew he couldn’t open more windows, not when Jeonghan looked like he rolled himself in blood and had weapons in the car.

“Slept well?” Coups asked Seungkwan, still looking through the papers. Seungkwan took a deep breath in, whilst regretting it, and sat more upright. Coups turned to Seungkwan, placing the papers down. “Don’t worry, passing out is a natural response to that kind of bloodbath.”   
  
Seungkwan nodded, noticing the glare Coups shot at Jeonghan. He looked down at the papers again, seeing how they had gotten wrinkled from blood stains. If he knew how faint his voice would be he wouldn’t have spoken. “What’s that?”

“Our documents.” Coups held the papers up again, “The opposing group had taken these papers from us, so we took them back.”   
  
Seungkwan did not remember when or how Hoshi and Jeonghan got the papers from the guy who got mauled on the dirty bathroom floor. Maybe it was better not to question it, as he really didn’t feel like reliving what had happened earlier. Instead he nodded, finding himself leaning back to Doyekom’s side. It was cold, as usual. 

The drive home felt longer than ever. It was still dark when they got back though. Jeonghan rushed up to take a shower, Woozi and Hoshi took the documents to lock them up somewhere. Coups gave Seungkwan and Dokyeom a pat on the back and told them to get some rest, then left. So Mingyu, Dokyeom and Seungkwan went up to their shared room to talk.

“Is it always like this?” Dokyeom asked, sitting crammed on Mingyu’s bed with the other boys.  Vernon was blocking them out with his headphones, as he was trying to study . Mingyu shook his head.

“Only when it’s Jeonghan. The others are a lot less gruesome…” Mingyu seemed to be shaken a little from the event as well. He told them he had to ‘watch’ a mission from a camera as well, but it wasn’t as gruesome as this one. Apparently, he only had to see Woozi get weapons. There was no blood involved at all. Other than that, missions don’t get filmed. It’s only a thing for new members.

Seungkwan fell out of the conversation, busy wondering why Jeonghan acted the way he did. Okay, he seemed like his usual batshit self but Seungkwan couldn’t rub off the feeling that Jeonghan seemed extremely angry whenever the target would throw faultblood slurs their way. Why would he be so offended when he wasn’t even a faultblood? It made no sense to him. He was normal, not a faultblood.

Dokyeom nudged Seungkwan’s side. The younger boy looked up at him, then at Mingyu. They both asked if he was okay. Seungkwan nodded and excused himself, saying he had to talk to Jeonghan.

When Seungkwan walked out of the room he looked down the hall, feeling as if it was longer than usual. There were too many doors between his and Jeonghan’s room, and it made him walk quickly. Impatiently. He got to the other end of the hall, just by the stairs, and knocked on the closed door.

“Come in.” 

Seungkwan opened the door and walked in, being welcomed to Jeonghan patting his hair dry with a towel. But of course, the first thing he noticed was the difference in the furnishing of the bunk beds. Instead of being pressed against each other horizontally like in his room, they were placed in parallel to each other. Jeonghan was sitting on the upper bed on on the bunkbeds closest to the bathroom door, alone.

“Ah, Kwannie!” Jeonghan grinned down at Seungkwan, dropping the towel from his head to let it rest on his shoulders. “Why are you here? Had a nightmare?”  
  
Seungkwan completely blocked him out as soon as Jeonghan started offering to share his bed, looking up at the ceiling instead. He wondered who his roommates were. It wouldn’t surprise him if Joshua was one of them. Seungkwan was kind of thankful he wasn’t Jeonghan’s roommate, as he probably wouldn’t survive a week in that circumstance.

The younger boy eventually got out of his thoughts when he thought he had enough of the weird questions that Jeonghan asked and he walked further into the room.   
  
“Can I ask you something?” Seungkwan inquired, looking at Jeonghan who had tilted his head. 

“Sure, come here and sit.” Jeonghan patted the empty space next to him on his bed, waiting for Seungkwan to climb up. Seungkwan sighed and climbed up. When he got up he suddenly felt regretful he didn’t get the upper bunk in his own room. He got overwhelmed with a feeling of superiority and  concluded if this was how Jeonghan felt every morning it was understandable why he was a real life Harley Quinn.

“So, what’s our heart to heart about?” Jeonghan crossed his legs. His eyes then widened, as if he got an idea of what they were talking about. He leaned closer, wearing a concerned expression as he whispered, “Do you have relationship troubles?”   
  
“What? No!” Seungkwan defended himself.

“You sure? I’m hearing rumours…” Seungkwan shook his head, confused whether Jeonghan was serious or just joking to loosen the mood.

“Quit it.” He felt irritation climb up on him, really not wanting to change the subject.

“Okay then, what is it?” Jeonghan straightened his back and looked at Seungkwan with an expression that was relatively more serious than the one he carried moments ago. Seungkwan inhaled, clawing his nails into his sweats softly. That sickening feeling he had in the van returned and he felt his own organs clench inside him.

“Why... Are you…” Seungkwan’s words died out as the feelings inside him became overwhelming. The nausea was braided too tightly together with fear he couldn’t even tell what was dominating inside him. His eyes scanned Jeonghan, looking at everything from the black hair still dripping wet to the scraped knuckles Jeonghan tried to hide by rubbing them softly against his thighs.

“Why did you keep your name?” It was too late to back out now. Jeonghan watched him silently with an unreadable expression, but maybe he just thought the younger boy was silly for asking something like that.

“My mom gave me that name.” Jeonghan’s voice was deeper, and somewhat more quiet. He broke eye contact and looked vacantly over at the empty bunk beds in front of them. Seungkwan swallowed and pressed further.

“Your mom?”  
  
“You want my backstory or something?” Jeonghan chuckled and looked back at Seungkwan, only to receive a nod in return. Jeonghan laughed a little more before leaning forward to ruffle the younger boy’s auburn locks. 

Soon enough the hand was removed, and the seriousness in Jeonghan’s tone resumed as he spoke. He had leaned back, keeping a significant distance between the two. Seungkwan wasn’t sure what was coming, and definetly not sure if he was ready to know.

“My mom was a faultblood.” Jeonghan said, ending the silence that had been filling the room earlier. Wait, what did he just say? Seungkwan didn’t even have time to take in the information before Jeonghan continued. “Dad found out once I was born. He left us to our own devices shortly after.”  
  
“She had a hard time finding a job, no one wants to hire a faultblood.” Jeonghan scratched his jaw as he looked down on his lap, a smirk painfully spread across his face. “No one wants to befriend the son of a faultblood either.”

Seungkwan felt the waterworks going, but he kept quiet. The questions he had were being answered, but being aware of how the other boys had it made him feel terrible.

“I eventually had enough, found Seventeen and joined.” Jeonghan brushed the almost-damp hair behind his ear and looked up at Seungkwan, no sign of tears though. “I decided to keep my name because it’s the name my mom gave me, I’m not ashamed to be her son.”   
  
“Then… Why did you leave her to join Seventeen?” Seungkwan hated himself so much. Him and his stupid curiosity. He was the king of self loathing by now. Though, to calm the younger boy’s nerves, Jeonghan didn’t seem to react too strongly. Instead, he looked at him in silence. The look in his eyes explained everything. 

“Ah…” Seungkwan felt his blood run cold. He looked down before turning back up to regain eye contact. “I’m-”   
  
“It’s okay.” Jeonghan smiled, this time wearing a gentle one. A smile that didn’t look as sorrowful. “For your comfort, my backstory is the least depressing one here.”   
  
It didn’t comfort him one bit though. Seungkwan sat there with a dryness in his mouth and a cold feeling in his chest. It felt like it all worsened once he heard the door creak and turned to see Coups standing there, looking up at them.

“Having a heart to heart?” Coups asked as he walked to the empty bunkbeds, sitting himself down on the bottom bunk.   
  
“We were actually having a dramatic childhood story talk. You know, who we were and what we did before joining Seventeen?” Jeonghan said, all of his serious character gone as if nothing happened. “Do you wanna join?”   
  
Seungkwan looked down at Coups, feeling bad for actually wanting to know what triggered him to start this organisation. What had lead up to this? How did it happen? What was his life like before? Seungkwan suddenly remembered when Vernon told him that Hoshi and Woozi were childhood friends and started together. What were those two like back then? All those questions  _ needed _ to be answered.

“Well?” Jeonghan’s voice broke Seungkwan out of his track of thoughts, the younger looking to his side to see Jeonghan’s feet were now dangling of off the edge of the bed. The older boy was looking down at Coups, who has been silent in thought. Coups’s dark eyes trailed over to Seungkwan, then back to Jeonghan. He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, the upper body weight depending on that now.

“I gotta start from the beginning, right?” Seungkwan was delighted to hear Coups’s down to earth tone again, the thick borders around him seemed to break slowly. He was surprised the leader would even agree to this, but apparently anything was possible when Jeonghan was around.

“Jih- Woozi, Hoshi and I were childhood friends.” Coups started, taking a minute before speaking as he seemed to recollect all memories. “We lived in one of those faultblood neighborhood ghettos and spent most days playing on the streets since no school wanted mutants as their students. Surprisingly enough, we were kind of sheltered from the outside world. We didn’t know how normal people actually despised us.”  
  
“When I was fifteen, Hoshi’s family ‘adopted’ another son. His parents tended to take faultblood kids into their house, but this was the first kid they’d take care of full time other than their actual son. You’ve talked to Dino by now, right?” Coups looked up at Seungkwan after having stared at the floor for a good minute or so. Seungknwan nodded, his mouth in an ‘o’ shape as he connected the dots.

“Prior to that, Dino was severely abused. His biological parents weren't faultbloods and didn’t like faultbloods at all. It wasn’t easy for him.” The leader’s voice was calm, in contrast to the information he was sharing. It felt surreal to listen to. “Around the time frail little Dino came around, Woozi’s parents both lost their jobs. They were struggling pretty soon with their economy. At home, my own brother became sick. Very sick.”   
  
Seungkwan started to feel tight knots in his stomach and was worried for what came next. It was almost more worrisome to hear Coups speak so calmly of this.

“Since he’s a faultblood, healthcare’s an issue and the doctors wouldn’t give him the proper treatment or medicines necessary to make him healthy again.” Coups paused for a minute, the first long pause he took since he started talking. The knots in Seungkwan’s stomach became tighter. “He’s bedridden now.”   
  
Coups moved to sit up straight, “Hoshi, Woozi and I finally saw how flawed society was. We grew tired of it and tried to rebel it, but it didn’t work as planned. When I turned seventeen, we made an oath. We’d fix  _ this _ . So we packed our bags and ran, those who wanted to join with us could - including Dino.”   
  
Seungkwan nodded, asking, “Who else were first to join?”   
  
“It was just the four of us to begin with, then Wonwoo came.” Coups pointed a finger towards Jeonghan, “Then he joined, and it just started to grow from there.”

“Ah…” Seungkwan nodded. His lips were pressed into a thin line until he spoke up again, “What about your families? What happened to them?”  
  
Coups was biting his bottom lip as he watched the younger boy in silence. “They know what we’re doing. Didn’t want to join. Unfortunately, we’re an organization and not a revolution.”

“I need to go talk to Joshua.” Coups said, rising from the bed. He walked towards the door before stopping, and turning back to the other boys. “Just know that what we’re doing is done for us."

Then he left. Jeonghan and Seungkwan looked at the empty spot by the doorframe and just accepted the silence for a while.

“Leaving without saying bye? So much for a heart to heart.” Jeonghan broke that silence, his dry voice making a standpoint that he had been silent for too long. The words Coups had said started to weigh on Seungkwan. His shoulders were slowly dropping and he felt the weight of Jeonghan shift next to him. Seungkwan looked over at him and noticed Jeonghan’s hair was still damp. Wow, it seemed to dry really slow.  
  
“I guess…” Seungkwan sighed. “You two share room?”  
  
“Yeah, with Joshua and Wonwoo.” Jeonghan explained, nodding as he spoke. Seungkwan nodded back, concluding the information he received today really opened his eyes. He realized they all had suffered from the oppression. Even Jeonghan, who wasn’t a faultblood, had seen all the horrors first hand. Seungkwan’s nausea was too much right now.

He jumped off the bunk bed after Jeonghan threatened to make marshmallows again and went back to his room. Seungkwan looked around to see Dokyeom and Mingyu were streaming a new movie from the ‘ _ Harry Potter _ ’ franchise, one Seungkwan didn’t wanna be spoiled in as he had yet to watch it, and Vernon was absent from the room.    
  
Seungkwan asked where Vernon was, being hushed multiple times in the process, and was eventually told he was underground sorting stuff. Seungkwan, who didn’t want to enter a movie midway and ruin it for himself, nodded and walked back out and down the hall. He rushed down the stairs, passing other members along the way. When he finished the last set of stairs he was suddenly overwhelmed by the echoes of his own footsteps and the dim lights that was overpowered by the darkness of the endless hallways.

He walked slowly, realizing his fears of being down here alone were still pretty bad. That and nausea was a pretty bad mix to be honest. Seungkwan inhaled deeply and looked around, noticing lights escaping a slightly ajar door. He looked up to see it was marked as ‘ _ Lab room _ ’ and guessed Joshua was in there, ‘talking’ with Coups. Despite not hearing any talking, he felt a little safer. He walked down the hallway, comforted by the fact that if he were to be haunted by ghosts Joshua would maybe be able to save him. 

His steps came to a complete stop as ‘ _ Storage’  _ was in front of him. He took a silent step closer, pressing his ear against the door. He heard shuffling and music playing, knowing it was Vernon. Vernon had been listening to J Cole’s songs so often Seungkwan almost knew all of them by heart.    
  
Seungkwan was surprised to find himself smiling. After all the things that had happened today, he really needed a shoulder to lean on. For some reason, he felt like Vernon would be the one to prevent him from throwing up the food that’s been threatening to come out all day. Just thinking about it eased his shaking hands. His hand reached for the doorknob and he opened it without thinking twice.   
  
“Hey I-” Seungkwan stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide and hands starting to sweat. He felt the warmth in his body leaving him and being replaced with cold. The darkness was embracing him and it was heavy, like he was falling. His mouth was dry, voice trembling. What he saw in front of him made the shaking worse. 

“...Vernon?”   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay... School... School & writers block. It's been a struggle. I'm sorry
> 
> Things are turning dark!! The plot is thickening!! We're getting closer to something. 
> 
> To be honest this might be my fav chapter. (yes it's because of yjh with a golf club) I'm not sure when I can update again but I really hope I can update soon! I was too sick to work on school assignments today, which is why I managed to update. 
> 
> Thank you for reading and having the patience!!!


	15. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I forgot to mention this in the last chapter but guys!! There's a fanvid/trailer of The Fault in our Blood!!
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-ZzjmtoNcg
> 
> Please go check it out!!!!!!

There were few perks in having your bed closer to the window. Take that in a negative way. He hated being awoken in the middle of the night by branches hitting the window due to the wind, just as much as he hated when the sun forced him awake because of how rays of light stung into his eyes.

But most of all, he hated it when the younger boy he shared room with would sneak into his bed and cuddle him. Why didn’t he just pick the bed further away from the window if this was going to happen every night? No wonder he didn’t get any sleep.

“Jeonghan… Get out of my bed.” Coups mumbled, lazily trying to untangle himself from the other’s tight grip. It was bad enough he tried to bury his face into the pillow to get rid of the sun. How was it even sunny now that it was winter? Did he sleep in late again?

“I thought you loved me.” Jeonghan’s voice, in contrary to Coups’s, didn’t sound tired at all. It was as if he had been awake for hours just planning his attack. His cold fingers were gripping onto the older boy like sloth claws and Coups felt like he was strangling.

“You’re only here because Joshua had to go to class.” he grumbled, frowning into the pillow. Jeonghan just hummed in reply. Since Joshua had the bunk over Coups, the leader would tell Jeonghan to cuddle with Joshua instead. But that would always be a short lived plan due to Joshua’s academic schedules.

Coups sighed as he felt Jeonghan’s arms slither around him again, this time in a much tighter grip. Jeonghan seemed to hear the sigh and peeked over the older’s shoulder. “I thought you liked spooning. Don’t you love me anymore?”  
  
He was too tired to answer and decided to just ignore Jeonghan. That seemed to work as Coups felt Jeonghan’s arms untangle themselves and the extra weight of Jeonghan’s presence disappear from the bed's mattress. Coups exhaled in relief, having the bed for himself at last and rolled over to lie on his back to spare his eyes from the sun.

He was soon to regret that, as a heavy weight suddenly dropped on his stomach. Coups coughed out pretty much all air in his lungs and looked up to see Jeonghan sit on his lower abdomen, crossed arms and classic death glare set on his eyes. Fuck. At least he didn't hold any weapons.

“Why don’t you love me?” Jeonghan’s voice was sharp and his glare was cold. If it wasn’t for the fact that Coups was already dying due to the other’s heavy weight on top of him, he’d fear for his life now.

“Why are you asking this?” Coups rubbed his eyes to get his black hair out from his sight. This was ridiculous. He really wanted to change roommate because this daily routine was too much for his aging soul. 

“Because…” Jeonghan lost the hardness in his expression and he tilted his head to the side. Well, that facade was over quickly.    
  
It was silent after that, the two oldest members stared at each other for for a good minute before Coups made another attempt to inhale. “Weren’t you supposed to check on Vernon with the stocks today?”   
  
Jeonghan looked down at him in silence, eyes widened as he realized he had forgotten. 

“Right.” the younger of the two whispered, quickly brushing some black hair behind his ear before jumping off of Coups. He ran to the door before stopping, one hand grasping onto the door frame. He turned around and gave Coups a mean look.   
  
“By the way, be nice to them today. Yesterday wasn’t easy.” Coups chuckled upon hearing that.

“You’re the one who made it hard for them. I’m as nice as I can be.” He sat up on the bed, shaking his head while while smiling softly at Jeonghan. In return, Jeonghan stuck out his tongue at him before turning around and running down the stairs.

 

“So… Our first mission is to be Woozi’s bodyguards?”    
  
“No-... Yes? I mean-” Hoshi scratched the back of his head, ruffling the newly dyed black hair. He leaned back against the kitchen counter, ignoring the fryingpan next to him that Wonwoo eagerly tried to get away from the stove to save the pancakes. “You’ll be making sure no one interrupts and walks in. Seungkwan will make sure no one plays dirty tricks during the meeting.”   
  
“Ah.” Dokyeom nodded, looking at the worry in Wonwoo’s expression over the burnt pancakes rather than Hoshi’s incredibly odd hand gestures. “So, I’ll keep a watch outside while Seungkwan is with Woozi?”   
  
“Yeah.”   
  
Dokyeom nodded and looked behind him. The reason why Wonwoo was making pancakes in the middle of the day was simple, no one had gotten any sleep. Dokyeom and Seungkwan had been quite uneasy after watching Jeonghan’s feature snuff film on livestream, Coups seemed to be as tired as ever, Mingyu was streaming movies the entire night, Jun and The8 had apparently been talking about government conspiracy theories and Dino? Well, that kid never slept.

Seungkwan sat on the opposite side of the kitchen island, body wrapped in a blanket as he stared vacantly at the cold toast in front of him. Dokyeom couldn’t tell what he was thinking about, as he hadn’t really spoken a word since yesterday night. He thought what happened prior must’ve really shaken him up, and Dokyeom felt like it might be better not to talk about it with the younger. Just to give him space.

But the silence continued. They found themselves in the van, now cleansed from the stench of blood, and waited anxiously for everything to take place - hoping it would finish soon. Seungkwan was still silent, his lips chapped and almost stuck together. His eyes were in a daze, and Dokyeom just grew more and more concerned. But before he got around to ask what was up, Woozi took Seungkwan and left, leaving Dokyeom to wait outside with Wonwoo. Mingyu was in the car not too far away, so it wouldn’t be that bad. Though, Dokyeom had first realized now he didn’t know what Woozi was going to do. All he knew was it was a meeting, but he had no idea what the meeting was about. 

It was when Dokyeom rested against the cold brick wall next to him that he realized how he had been in a daze too. This entire morning the only thing he could actually recall was looking over at Seungkwan and feeling worry. He woke up in the same room as Seungkwan and had since spent all day with him. But now that they were separated, he didn’t have to worry about him. Right?

Dokyeom looked over to his side as he heard a phone ring. Wonwoo searched his pockets and dug his phone out, looking down at the caller before telling Dokyeom he’d have to take it. The younger just nodded, watching as Wonwoo answered, talking to whomever was calling him and walked away. Dokyeom was curious what kind of call needed Wonwoo to speak in private, but he knew it was better to just not ask. 

He sighed and rolled from his side to his back, pressing his back and the back of his head against the wall behind him. He looked up to see the snow fall, white sky making it harder to see. Since there was already snow on the ground he could determine if someone was approaching by listening to crunching snow. So far there was nothing.

“What’s wrong with me?” He whispered to himself, rubbing a hand across his forehead. He felt stressed about his mood. It would be easier to blame it on Seungkwan, but he knew it wouldn’t give him a good moral.    
  
He sighed again, shutting his eyes this time. He just really wanted to know what was wrong with Seungkwan and why it made him upset too.

Trying to clear his mind, he focused on the silence. The silence, yes. It was calming, as it was silent. It was… Silent. Actually, it wasn’t. He heard breathing, but guessed it was his own. That was until he noticed the pace of his breathing didn’t match what he heard.

Hoping Wonwoo had returned without him noticing, Dokyeom opened his eyes and looked over to see grocery bags being dropped and a small woman lose color in her face.

 

 

The meeting was kind of boring. Seungkwan expected to keep a loaded gun by his side at all times and defend Woozi like it was some meeting with a mobster boss. In fact, Woozi was just purchasing guns from some guy. Considering they were in an old slaughterhouse that only had light coming in through the windows. But that wasn’t enough to find comfort.

Seungkwan had been standing a couple of feet away from Woozi and that guy who apparently was named Mr. Hwang. They talked quietly since no one wanted their entire conversation to echo throughout the building using a lot of hand gestures and pointing at the bag of money Seungkwan clutched onto and the suitcases Mr. Hwang had brought with him. Seungkwan knew those suitcases contained the weapons. The reason why Woozi needed to buy guns was unbeknownst to the younger boy, but he couldn’t bother asking. He was too tired.

 

_ Chills ran down his spine as he watched Vernon turn around in surprise. _

_ “S-Seungkwan-” He stuttered, moving in front the dark plastic bags behind him. The bags he was trying to cover.  _ _   
_ _   
_ __ Seungkwan just stared wide eyed at Vernon, feeling the nauseating burn in his throat going up to his tongue. His hand slipped off of the door knob, too sweaty to grasp onto anything. The music was dying out - or more like, Seungkwan was blocking out the music.

_ “I- You really surprised me there!” Vernon laughed nervously, walking closer to the other boy. It was obvious he was frightened, maybe even as frightened as Seungkwan. “What’re you doing down here at this hour? How- How did the mission go?” _

_ Seungkwan just stared at the biracial boy in silence, his eyes eventually directing themselves towards the plastic bags. He swallowed. _

_ “What’s in those bags?...”  That was all Seungkwan could stutter, but it made impact nonetheless. Vernon had lost all color in his face now, eyes too wide to realistic measure.  _ _   
_ _   
_ _ “It’s not-” _ _   
_ _   
_ __ “Answer me.” Seungkwan turned his look back towards Vernon, his brown eyes turning into a cold glare. Despite the newly found anger in him, the mixture of betrayal and shock fueled him negatively. His voice was still trembling though. “What’s in those bags?”

_ There was a long silence after that. Vernon seemed to spiral through an endless tunnel of nine differing emotions that related to uncertainty and inner conflict. After he was done, Vernon sighed and dropped his shoulders. _

_ “It’s Xanax.” He looked over at Seungkwan to see a small hint of relief, only to be replaced by anger. _

_ “What?” Here he stood, thinking Vernon was placing dead bodies in black plastic bags. But it was drugs? What was he even doing with drugs? Seungkwan’s blood was boiling and Vernon could tell, as the younger boy shot up his hands in defense. _

_ “It’s not like that-” _ _   
_ _   
_ __ “What do you mean it’s not like that? Why are you storing Xanax?” Seungkwan’s voice just rose as he spoke. Vernon was visibly flinching and the older boy knew this wasn’t a good way to handle the situation. Not when he already felt the way he left. Letting it all out on Vernon wasn’t good.

_ “Are we drug dealers? Coups said this wasn’t a drug ring! What are you doing with those bags?” He was so upset about this, maybe it didn’t matter that he was letting it out on Vernon. “Is it yours?” _ _   
_ _   
_ __ Vernon stood there, silent. Judging by his beat up expression he took all the blame for it. He must’ve felt guilty, it made Seungkwan worried that Vernon might actually be an addict.

_ But instead of letting his worry show, his brows furrowed and he crossed his arms. “Well?” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ The other didn’t speak though. Vernon remained silent, his hazel eyes crystal clear from tears threatening to fall. His thin lips were pale and light brown hair messily covering his forehead. Eventually, he blinked and croaked out; “It’s not mine.” _ _   
_ _   
_ __ “Believe me, it isn’t.” Vernon couldn’t raise his voice, it looked like he was going to cry at any moment.

_ “Then what is it?” Seungkwan asked, his tone dropped and arms eventually unfolding. Did he go overboard? _ _   
_ _   
_ __ “It’s-” Vernon stopped in his tracks. He was silent again and dropped his head to look at the ground. “I… Can’t tell you.”

_ “Yes… Vernon…” Seungkwan was struggling with his words, his impatience trying to overpower patience. “You can tell me.” _ _   
_ _   
_ __ The two boys stared at each other in silence, one trying to convince the other with the comfortable dark color in his eyes. Vernon looked like he was drowning in that comfort. He exhaled a shaky breath and mumbled something that almost got drowned out by the music playing from Vernon’s neglected phone.

_ “Antidote.” _

 

He hadn’t gotten an ounce of sleep the night prior as what had happened in the storage room kept replying in his head. It bothered him to no end. What did Vernon mean by antidote?   
  
Seungkwan’s shoulders dropped, conflicted over all the secrets being kept from him and Dokyeom. They deserved to know. He had to get a peek inside what was actually going on. The bag was also heavy, which was why his shoulders had dropped.

“I’m glad we came to an agreement, Mr. Hwang.” Woozi said, shaking Mr. Hwang’s hand and also stopping Seungkwan’s train of thoughts.    
  
“Always a pleasure.” Mr. Hwang said. Woozi turned around to Seungkwan and motioned him to come over and hand the money to Mr. Hwang. The younger boy strided forward in clumsy steps and awkwardly handed the bag to Mr. Hwang, who took it in a firm hold. 

“Hope to make business with you soon.” Mr. Hwang eyed Sungkwan before smiling down at Woozi. He left soon after, not bothering to say goodbye or exchange any other form of pleasantries. Woozi took a few suitcases and Seungkwan took the rest. They exchanged a look and walked out of the slaughterhouse and out into the cold.

 

“S-Seokmin?” Her voice was a mumble in disbelief, but it filled up months of absence nonetheless.

Dokyeom stared at her in silence, panic with relief blended in an uncomfortable mix. His mother walked closer, abandoning the grocery bags. Her breath trembly, as it was given away from the fog she exhaled. He stayed silent, trying to remain calm. But when she held a hand up to his cold cheek and he flinched slightly, he instantly regretted it.

“I-” She took her hand back, looking at him in disbelief. As if she was worried he was just a fragment of her imagination. Her voice cracked as she spoke. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”   
  
Dokyeom felt himself chew on his lower lip. His mother looked so tired. The bags under her eyes and her sunken in cheeks were too much for him to look at.    
  
“Mom…” It’s been so long since he said that word. The word had a familiarity in his mouth, but it was bittersweet. He didn’t want to cry, despite feeling unable to. 

“Where have you been? You and Seungkwan? We’ve been so worried!” She stopped as soon as she grabbed his hand. Two warm hands grasped tightly onto one cold hand. Her fingers pressed against his hand, as if trying to warm him up. His mom smiled, eye wrinkles crinkling and lips spread wide. It was an unsure smile.

“We’re okay. I… We’re fine...” He didn’t know what he was trying to say. He wanted to come clean to her. He wanted to explain why he left but no words would come out. He was worried his mom might judge him. Worried someone who wasn’t supposed to hear was witnessing. Despite how much Dokyeom had missed his mom and despite how comfortable her small hands felt around his big one, he couldn’t find security in trying to tell her. She shouldn’t even have seen him to begin with.

“Where have you been? Will you come back home?” His mother’s voice cracked as she spoke, her eyes turning glassy. Dokyeom could tell tears were threatening to fall out. He really didn’t want to deal with this.

“No…” He shook his head, watching disappointment take over in her expression. “We… Can’t…”   
  
Soon enough though, the disappointment was replaced with understanding. Dokyeom was confused and felt a brow quirk up when his mother’s face became calm.   
  
“It’s because of this, isn’t it?” She asked in a hushed voice, her thumbs stroking the palm of his hand. 

“Wait, what? How did you know?” Dokyeom lowered himself a little to reach the same height level of his mother, but it only make minor difference. How would she know the reason he left? Did his dad know too?   
  
“I was home with you when you were a toddler. I saw everything.” Her serious tone gradually ascended to a more humorous, more warm voice. “You tried to make your orange juice into a popsicle back then.”

Dokyeom chuckled, but it wasn’t out of humour. Just courtesy. In all honesty he was scared shitless. “What about dad?”  
  
His mother’s smile dropped slightly, “I kept it a secret. He still doesn’t know.”  
  
“Hah…” Dokyeom sighed in relief. But his mind was made up. He couldn’t go back. “Mom, you need to go.”  
  
“What are you talking about? Seok, aren’t you coming home?” Her fingernails clawed softly into his skin.   
  
“No…” It pained him to say it. But it was the only thing he could say. “I can’t, I mean, what would everyone say if I came back and Seungkwan didn’t?”  
  
His mother’s lips pressed into a thin line as Dokyeom spoke. She stared in silence, obviously realizing how silly it seemed to try to get him back. Though, it still looked like something within her broke. Her grip on his hand loosened and the nails digging into him has left small, almost insignificant marks.

“I understand.” She looked down at the snow, but quickly turned back up to look at her son. “I hope you’re happy, Seokmin. Live a life you’re in charge of.”   
  
He looked down at her in silence, allowing her to embrace him one last time. As she pulled apart, the warmth from her painfully tearing away, she gave him a smile and walked back to pick up her groceries. 

Dokyeom just stared as she turned back at him and said, “Don’t forget me, okay?”   
  
All he could do was nod and watch her leave. The only thing left of her were the traces of her footsteps in the snow.

Dokyeom shut his eyes and sighed, hoping his tensed muscles would relax soon. After a surprisingly short amount of time, he heard footsteps. Upon opening his eyes, he saw Wonwoo walk up to him. Hands dug into his pockets and snowflakes fallen onto his dark hair.

“That was a long phone call.” Dokyeom snickered, trying to pretend that what just happened  _ didn’t  _ happen. Wonwoo huffed out a small cloud of warm air.

“I didn’t want to bother you.” Dokyeom’s eyes widened, staring at Wonwoo in shock. Did he hear everything?    
  
Fear overwhelmed him as he thought of the possible consequences that would hit him. Would he tell Coups? Woozi? How would they react? Would he be denounced? Would they call him a traitor? To make Dokyeom’s thoughts crumble even more, Wonwoo smiled.

“I knew you wouldn’t cave in. Never disappointing, huh?” He said, smile still plastered on his face as if he was a father proud of his son for scoring at a football game. Dokyeom sighed, feeling himself lean back against the brick wall again.

“You-... Why didn’t you interfere?” He asked, pressing his back further and further against the cold wall behind him.   
  
“Testing you, I guess. But I knew you wouldn’t accept her offer. It would be pointless to make a big deal out of it.” He knew. He knew? The fact that Wonwoo was well aware of Dokyeom being offered to leave and go right back to the comfort of his childhood home was weird to him. He knew, but he also knew that Dokyeom wouldn’t accept it. What made Wonwoo so certain about it, being able to talk to the younger boy with such a prideful smile? As if it wasn’t a big deal to him, even though it was nerve wrecking for Dokyeom? It was as if Wonwoo had more control of the situation, in which he wasn’t even involved in, than Dokyeom himself.

It bothered him.

 

Upon returning home, Hoshi had immediately gathered them and told them there’d be a meeting. Dokyeom felt like something was wrong. He based his judgement off how The8 and Jun seemed to literally  _ cling  _ onto each other by the tennis table. Seungkwan, even though he’d usually try to talk nonstop with Vernon, didn’t even look at him. Instead, Seungkwan just sat next to Dokyeom in silence. Vernon was picking at his dry cuticles with Dino next to him.

The meeting was in the big training room, like the one they had when Dokyeom and Seungkwan first joined. Coups entered the room, with Joshua following suit, holding some papers in his hands. Dokyeom had heard Hoshi mumble something about this being a one of their biggest missions yet. The fact that they would get said mission as soon as they came back from their first mission ever was strange, but maybe it’s safer to just not question it.

The silence was heavy. It seemed like even Coups was unable to break it. The leader looked down at the papers in his left hand and sighed. He looked back up at the others in the room, his expression calm compared to the others that filled with stress. He eyed Woozi and Hoshi for a while before speaking, “The time has come.”   
  
“It’s time for one - if not  _ the _ \- biggest mission of our time as Seventeen.” Coups smiled. He was proud, happy. “We’ve fought long and hard, but it’s time.”

“Our next mission will be overseas. We’re going to China. You guys remember the Leos, right?” Whoever that was, the mention of ‘the Leos’ seemed to spark chatter. Some of it was nervous chatter. Most of it was, actually. Coups cast a glance at Jun and The8 before continuing. “For those of you who don’t know, The8 and Jun were formerly members of the Leos. Before we rescued them.”  
  
What was going on? He had never heard this before. Dokyeom had his fair share of conversations with both The8 and Jun but he had not once heard anything about their past. It felt like he truly didn’t know them.

“Joshua has been working hard on making a chemical combination we need, but we can’t truly replicate it. A source leaked the info that the Leos have the chemical mixture we need. After the problems they’ve caused us... It’s justifiable to take it, right?” Dokyeom had so many questions. He glanced around to see if the others had a somewhat close reaction to his own, stopping to see Jeonghan look extremely agitated. His arms were crossed tightly and Dokyeom swore he had never seen the older boy’s pupils that small.   
  
“We’re breaking into their headquarters, taking their lab samples and leave. The mission is estimated to take a month from start to finish. During that time, we’ll keep a low profile in China and execute our plan. Our plane broads in March, so we got plenty of time to go through everything.” Coups waved the papers he held in the air as he spoke. The silence was quick to fall again. Everyone listened as the last echo of Coups’s voice rang in the room and then disappeared.   
  
“What are we going to do with the mixture?” Jeonghans voice suddenly filled the room. Dokyeom turned to look at him, seeing how the older boy had his arms crossed uncomfortably. Almost as if he was cold or uncomfortable. Dokyeom made sure to see if he was doing something on accident, but decided it must be since the heating system was nonexistent underground.

Coups stared at him in silence, as if he was having an inner dialogue about Jeonghan’s body language before taking a deep breath. “We’re going to make the antidote.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! 
> 
> Firstly I wanna apologize, this isn't beta-ed and it's a very slow chapter. Next chapter will be slow too, but I promise !! Soon we'll get to the /good/ stuff.  
> Also it's 2 am so I can't bother focusing on correcting my bad grammar lol.......
> 
> I'm not too happy with this chapter, but the jeongcheol kinda makes up for it imo. 
> 
> I have been planning for a long time to get some ""closure"" between Seokmin or Seungkwan and their families. Just to state that their past selves aren't completely forgotten and thrown away. I'm also trying to deal with their emotions in a realistic way, but for some reason I feel drained whenever I write any of them in a depressive state? Yikes.
> 
> I'll work harder to do better!! Thanks for reading and enjoying TFIOB!! : ) I love to hear your feedback, it makes me super happy!


	16. Chapter 9

“Antidote? For what?” Jeonghan asked, glancing over at Seungkwan and Dokyeom although his glare stayed fixated on Coups. He knew the answer. Coups knew that Jeonghan knew. The oldest member pressed his lips tightly together, almost as if he held himself back from doing something bad.   
  
“We’re going to cure us. Make an antidote.” Woozi spoke up, noticing how tense Coups had grown. Even Joshua seemed to take some distance from the oldest. 

“Cure you? You mean take away the ETB gene?” Jeonghan was not happy. Dokyeom felt himself shrink in his place as confusion and fear grew inside him. ETB gene? He had never heard that before. Was that what made him a faultblood? Everyone were staring at Jeonghan, some glancing at the leaders for some sort of explanation. Some seemed just as confused as Dokyeom and Seungkwan were.

“We’ll continue discussing the plan later. All of you resume to what you were doing priorly to this.” Coups said, ignoring Jeonghan’s question. But his dark eyes stared at the other, and as members left Dokyeom could hear Coups tell Jeonghan to stay. Dokyeom gulped and felt his hand reach up to Seungkwan’s shoulder, trying to ignore the mumbles of the other members as they walked back up to their room. He couldn’t help but glance over at Jun and The8 who both seemed to not talk at all, unlike everyone else.

“Why do you always gotta cause a scene?” Coups sighed as he pinched his nose bridge. He walked closer to Jeonghan, slowly, and put his hands on his hips. The two stared at each other in silence before Coups spoke up. “You knew this was going to happen. Why are you acting like a child?”  
  
“You know I don’t like this!” Jeonghan crossed his arms, body language making it clear that he was very discomforted. It was true though. The two had talked about this before. 

“Jeonghan… How many options do we got?” He hated having to explain this, Jeonghan always acted like a child. He was tired. How would Jeonghan understand anyway? He wasn’t a faultblood.

“A lot! We don’t need to get rid of your powers! We can do so much else! What happened to exposing the nuclear power plants?” His voice rose as he spoke, eyes wide. Coups stared back at Jeonghan while trying to reclaim a calm expression.   
  
“We tried that already, it didn’t work. We can’t risk it again. You know Chan is a child, right? And the new kids-...” Coups stopped in his tracks and sighed. “Going to China will be better. For all of us.”   
  
“How will it be better for us?” Jeonghan asked, his voice now as stressed as before. 

“Getting rid of ETB will make everything better. Do you think half our members joined because they wanted to? Faultbloods aren’t accepted in our society and we can’t change that. We have to change ourselves.” Coups watched as Jeonghan’s face grew paler. It was as if it was a reality he just  _ couldn’t _ accept.

“Why can’t we just accept things? We’ve already gone so far…” Jeonghan muttered. “We’re doing well the way we are now…”   
  
Coups squinted his eyes slightly, eyebrows turned into a frown. He knew they weren’t doing well. No one was doing well the way they were now. One single information leak and they could all get assassinated in their sleep. Nothing was okay the way things were.   
  
“Jeonghan, this mission isn’t just us.” Coups said, trying to push away the consequences of a failed plan from running around in his head. “It’s for all of us. Every faultblood on this planet. Not just you and me.”   
  
Jeonghan just stared in silence, biting his lower lip hard enough to make a hole. Coups scratched his neck.   
  
“Think about it for a while.” He turned around and walked back out of the room, leaving the door to close by itself. Jeonghan remained frozen in his position.

 

 

 

Dokyeom considered themselves lucky to get the livingroom to themselves. Well, they were six people down there. No one else wanted to join as, like Coups said, they should resume to their prior activities and people were busy. But he did feel like it might not make him as anxious if they were in a room with closed doors instead. They were talking about the mission, about going to China. Mingyu tried to lighten the mood by saying things like how he always wanted to try dim sum, despite his attempts being in vain. Seungkwan was silent, as he had been the entire day. Vernon was picking at his cuticles, listening in a silence that was awfully familiar to Seungkwan's. Jun and The8 were the only ones to throw sarcastic comments back at Mingyu, but most of the time they’d sit in an awkward silence.  


“Hey… What’s the ETB gene?” Dokyeom decided to ask after pondering on wether to ask or not. Everyone stared at him in slight surprise, making him realize he had been silent in thought for a long time. Oops.

“The ETB gene? You don’t know?” Mingyu asked, quirking a brow. Dokyeom shook his head, guessing it must be common knowledge.    
  
“ETB is short for ‘Extra Terrestrial Blood’, and it’s the gene that makes us” The8 spoke up, pointing between him and Dokyeom and then pointing between Vernon and Mingyu. “different from them.”   
  
Dokyeom nodded, his assumptions were right. He was still uncertain of some things though. “But how can they get rid of it? Is that even possible?”   
  
“I guess.” Jun suddenly spoke up. He looked up at The8, lips pressed together into a thin smile before turning to Dokyeom. “If they can make faultbloods by injecting ETB, anything should be possible.”   
  
“What do you mean?” Dokyeom asked, feeling the weight next to him shift a little. At the corner of his vision he saw Seungkwan move slightly. Jun bit his upper lip, thinking through his answer.   
  
“Minghao and I aren’t Korean. The ETB-gene is only spread to a small number of Korean civilians.” He said. Dokyeom’s eyes widened. Jun just stared back at him in silence before nodding. “When we were members of the Leos, it wasn’t like we wanted to join. Someone injected us with the ETB-gene and it made us into faultbloods… We were forced members of the Leos so nothing ‘worse’ could happen to us.”   
  
“Not as if there’s anything worse than being members of the Leos anyway.” The8 mumbled, crossing his arms. 

“But… How is that possible?” Dokyeom, ignoring The8’s comment, was still very confused as of how someone could turn into a faultblood by being injected. 

“Well… You need to be high on Xanax first, so your body can’t reject the ETB.” Jun said, scratching his chin. “Then you get injected and wait for it to kick in.”  
  
Dokyeom nodded, feeling Seungkwan shift a lot again. Eventually the weight got lifted next to him and he glanced up to see Seungkwan walk over to the kitchen.   
  
“So… It’s the same procedure to get rid of the ETB gene?” He turned back to Jun and The8, receiving a nod in return from the both of them - even from Mingyu.  
  
“The Leos were experimenting a lot with ETB, trying to play God or something. They tried to make a guy normal after they had successfully made him into a faultblood…” Jun started to trail off, as if talking about it wasn’t something he was fond of. The8 seemed to understand what he was talking about, as his shoulders dropping. They then heard a tap running, guessing Seungkwan was going to get something to drink.  
  
“It was going to be a breakthrough for them.” The8 croaked out. “Their cause was to experiment on people in inhumane ways and make an antidote. They thought they had something and tested it on one of our friends.”  
  
Dokyeom watched in silence as Mingyu pulled an arm around The8, as he was the closest to him, patting him on the shoulder. The8 leaned into Mingyu a little, but not enough to make Dokyeom notice. “We were forced to watch, because if it was successful we’d get injected too.”

“Instead we were forced to watch him die.” Jun muttered. The8 blinked away some bad memories and the boys in the room just let the silence take dominance. Dokyeom didn’t feel like he had the strength to speak. Just thinking of the things the others had gone through was too much for him. That kind of sight must’ve been traumatising. Was Coups going to make the two relive those memories when going to China? 

“You know…” The8 sniffled. Dokyeom hadn’t even noticed he had begun crying and was naturally alarmed. “As long as the other gang suffers, I don’t care whether our antidote works or not.”   
  
He patted tears away with skinny fingers, looking over at Dokyeom with determination. “Whether or not you agree with the plan, please just do us the favor and cause a lot of pain to the Leos.”

Dokyeom found himself nodding, only listening halfway through. He almost focused more on Vernon, whom he might have forgotten was in the room, that stood up and walked to the kitchen. But he composed himself and drew his attention back to the three boys in front of him. Mingyu started talking about something that made the others chuckle. The8’s tears were quick to dry and Dokyeom just wanted that small happiness in the room to cover him. 

 

 

Seungkwan had been trying to fill an empty glass with hot water for what seemed like forever. He stood there, frozen. Water was overflowing from the glass, running down his fingers and dropping to the sink. Steam was flowing all over the place. His dark eyes stared vacantly down at the scene, not paying the least attention to what was happening in front of him.

He heard footsteps, but wasn’t bothered to check who it was. He heard a familiar voice ask a question, then hearing the footsteps approach until a presence was next to him. A familiar hand with familiar short nails closed the tap.   
  
“The water was boiling, what were you-...” Seungkwan turned to his right to see Vernon. The younger boy shut his mouth and avoided eye contact, looking down at the sink instead. Being brought back to his conscious, Seungkwan was made aware of the filled glass he was holding. He turned down to the sink, seeing Vernon’s pale hand withdraw - probably hiding it in one of his pants pockets - and how his own fingers hadn’t even shown the slightest sign of damage. Odd. He didn’t feel any pain either.

Seungkwan just placed the glass down on the sink, certain he was  _ feeling _ warmth when holding onto it, and drew his hand closer to his face to inspect what was going on.   


“I… Noticed you left earlier... “ Vernon’s voice pulled through, trying to distort Seungkwan’s focus from himself. “When they talked about Xanax... “ 

“Mmh.” Seungkwan’s lipped pressed into a thin line. He placed his hand down and turned his head over to Vernon, meeting his hazel eyes. He didn’t wanna confront his own feelings and could only find himself mumble, “I did leave.”   
  
His conversation skill were clearly lacking and it seemed to make Vernon grow impatient. The younger boy ran a tongue between his lips for moisture before speaking with slight determination. “I hope it cleared out everything that happened between us in the storage room.”   
  
Seungkwan noticed how much strength it took for Vernon to utter those words. Watching the boy get emotionally wrecked the other night was an obvious explanation as to why Vernon looked so terrified. He looked like he was really struggling, as if he didn’t want to taint their relationship more than it already had been.

It didn’t feel good. As much as he knew how bad Vernon felt about it and how much the younger boy wanted forgiveness, Seungkwan was fully aware of how much it was his own fault. Seungkwan had taken everything out of proportion and blamed Vernon for things he didn’t even know about. The guilt was really starting to itch at him.

“Yes…” Seungkwan mumbled, surprising himself with his slightly trembling voice. He didn’t expect his own feelings to overrun. “I’m sorry, Vernon. I shouldn’t have said all that.”   
  
Vernon just stared in silence. Tears already welling up in his eyes and his hope was oozing out of him. Seungkwan’s eyebrows furrowed together into a small frown. “I’m… Really sorry. After the things that had happened the last couple of days… It’s like I’ve been in some other world. I really haven’t been me… It doesn’t mean I should’ve released all that stress on you like that. I completely lost my temper.”  
  
Vernon sniffled. After that the tears fell. Shit, did Seungkwan really make Vernon that sad? Feeling a little worse, Seungkwan stepped closer and wiped the tears away. He then hugged Vernon, almost surprised by how easy it was to get it accepted. Vernon was quick to wrap his arms around him and cry in silence.    
  
After that, Vernon mumbled things about he was worried Seungkwan would never talk to him again. The biracial boy just let out all his worries and fears right then and there. While it burdened Seungkwan to think that Vernon  _ thought _ the two would never be the same, he was still comforted by the thought that Vernon felt safe enough to talk about it to the older boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long!! So much has been going on and I'm only nearing the top of the mountain right now. But I also have a lot planned for TFIOB now, so hopefully we can pick up pace soon enough!! 
> 
> Thank you for reading, it means a lot to me!


	17. Chapter 10

They were lucky to have a silent morning among the stressful days and Seungkwan made sure to treasure it. In between planning and training, Seungkwan and Dokyeom found some time to just relax in their own little silence. 

The sun was up and it's rays highlighted the snow like a glittering carpet. Seungkwan sat on the kitchen island, bringing a spoonful of yoghurt to his mouth while staring at the snow with interest. Dokyeom was searching for a spoon so he could eat his breakfast too. Seungkwan had offered to share but the older boy felt like their relationship hadn’t reached that kind of level yet, so he politely declined. 

Believe it or not, the kitchen was surprisingly clean. It was always clean and not even some sort of rare sight for this peculiar morning. But Dokyeom had sighted Wonwoo cleaning in the middle of the night, so that could be a possible explanation to the spot-free room.

“I’ve never been to China before.” Seungkwan said in between mouthfuls of yoghurt. “I’m kind of excited, to be honest.”   
  
“Mmh. Neither have I actually.” Dokyeom finally found a spoon, in between the knives for some reason, and could finally dig into his breakfast. “Good thing Jun and The8 know the language.”   
  
The older boy then heard Seungkwan chuckle. He smiled a little as he looked down at his breakfast. Prior to this, Hoshi had been trying to get them to dye their hair. Obviously that was only Hoshi’s desire as no one else really seemed to pressure the boys into it. Both Dokyeom and Seungkwan decided to keep their hair undamaged. Though, they could go for a trim soon.

“Also… I heard you finally became immune to your powers?” Dokyeom stated, looking up at Seungkwan to see the younger’s reaction. As expected, he received a look of surprise. His eyes widened and his mouth opened into a small ‘o’ shape.  
  
“Vernon told you?” Seungkwan then asked, feeling slightly surprised those news would pass so quickly. Or well, it’s been over a week since it happened. But Seungkwan had been good and tried to hide his recent unlocked skill from the others. He shouldn’t entrust secrets to teenage boys. Of course he’d want to keep it hush-hush as he had only held his hand in boiling water, nothing else. What if he got seriously burnt, thinking he was immune? That would be quite embarrassing.

“Yeah. Such things shouldn’t be pushed under the rug.” Despite feeling nervous due to the uncertainty of how immune he actually was, Seungkwan felt calm when seeing how proud Dokyeom looked.  
  
“I guess not.” The younger of the two pressed his lips together and dug his spoon deep into his yoghurt, hoping some sort of conversation change would happen soon. “Maybe it just wouldn’t be something to celebrate, considering immunity seems normal.”  
  
Dokyeom smiled softly. Seungkwan grew irritated over how perfect the smile fit his gentle expression. “I guess… But we should also consider how half a year ago we couldn’t even talk about this together.”  
  
“What are you getting at?” Seungkwan held his yoghurt down to his thighs, really just wanting the topic to drop. Couldn’t Dokyeom read between the lines?

“I mean-...” The older straightened his back before continuing, “We should be happy we can express ourselves now, and take pride in our true selves.”   
  
Seungkwan stared at him in silence for a while before turning back to the yoghurt on his lap. “I guess you’re right.”

Dokyeom felt bothered by Seungkwan’s change in attitude but couldn’t question more as Hoshi walked in, groaning about orange juice. After a thorough search in the fridge, Hoshi found his orange juice and hurried to empty it. Seungkwan and Dokyeom just stared in silence, somewhat used to this but also somewhat grossed out.

“You guys… Woozi’s  _ killing _ me! He keeps stressing over the fact my Chinese is the equivalent of a baby learning to speak!” Hoshi groaned, closing the fridge door and placing the empty juice carton on the kitchen island next to Seungkwan.    
  
“You’re learning Chinese?” Dokyeom rose a brow in surprise. Why didn’t he get language lessons?

“Yeah… We need more people than Jun and The8 knowing how to speak, so I had to take one for the team.” Hoshi wouldn’t admit that Coups and Woozi were also learning Chinese so he shouldn’t be complaining, but it seemed like Dokyeom and Seungkwan wouldn’t buy it.

“So… Have you learnt anything?” Seungkwan asked, poking the empty juice carton away from his thigh. 

“I think Jun taught me to say ‘Where’s your best ladies’ because after I told Woozi he kicked me in the gut.” Hoshi muttered, mindlessly rubbing his side. Dokyeom chuckled.   
  
“I guess he doesn’t want you to be going on the wrong track. He cares about you.” Dokyeom said, keeping the smile on his face.

“As much as it makes my insides all warm and fuzzy, I’m pretty sure he’s thinking more about saving his own ass instead of mine.” Hoshi crossed his arms and pouted, making Dokyeom and Seungkwan sigh in defeat.

“The truth is cold, huh…”   
  
  
  
Despite finding out he was terrified of airplanes, the process of going to China went pretty smoothly. At least that’s what Dokyeom liked to believe, despite still feeling his heart palpitating. Woozi had given them their fake passports and everyone shared a good laugh at Seungkwan’s passport name being ‘Boo Jaejoong’ before boarding the plane. Dokyeom liked to think that he was going on a vacation with some friends, but the real reason for their travel was too dark to let his imagination cover.  
  
He sat in a small hotel room with the other guys, all of them discussing what to do on the following day. They had to move fast, as their tracks could be uncovered quickly. As they were rehearsing the plan once again while sharing pizza, Jeonghan said he’d go out to get some air. Dokyeom couldn’t blame him, the room was making him slightly claustrophobic. Especially since Mingyu was accidentally pressing greasy fingers against Dokyeom whenever he had to move. Gross.

“And then The8 goes here,” Coups said, drawing circles with his finger on a blueprint map of the alleged headquarters of the Leos. While Dokyeom trusted Woozi’s stalking skills in finding out all information about them, there was an underlying feeling that the Leos might be one step ahead. “Through this wall and takes the antidote. Once he signals he’s got it we pick him up and finish the job.”   
  
Dokyeom had to admit that it felt weird being in this position. In a small, soggy hotel room in the darker parts of one of China’s bigger cities, sharing pizza with a bunch of other guys and talking about stealing drugs from a Chinese gang. And yet, he felt the most stressed about Mingyu’s pizza greased fingers and going on that airplane a couple of hours ago.    


While Coups continued to talk about the plan, Dokyeom looked around the room. Woozi’s face was glued to a laptop screen, as usual, but for a good reason. A couple of minutes prior he set a bunch of heat detectors around the room and the hallway, in case of spies. When walls are thin as paper and you’re in a foreign country doing illegal things, you can’t be too comfortable. Whether it was their luck or not, the hotel was too soggy for any other guests to reside there. 

“Do we really have to get up at five though? I’m jetlagged from the plane.” Hoshi asked, having his arms around Dino as if the younger boy was a plushie.   
  
“It was a three hour plane, how could you be jetlagged?” Wonwoo chuckled. Hoshi grunted, avoiding the glare Woozi threw at him.   
  
“I just need to charge up my powers.” Hoshi said, ignoring how Dino was already half asleep in his arms. “What if we forget the plan because we woke up so early and are super tired?”  
  
“Your excuses are so cheap.” The8 said as he munched on some leftover pizza crust. “But we do need to charge our powers though.”  
  
“Then let’s call it a day. Everyone go to your assigned rooms and let’s meet in the lobby tomorrow morning.” Coups said, rising from his seat. The others rose too and soon they separated to respective hotel rooms. Dokyeom stayed behind with Wonwoo, as the entire group had used _their_ room to eat pizza in. Dokyeom packed the cartons together and Wonwoo opened a window.

“This is big.” Wonwoo suddenly said, glancing out of the window. Their view wasn’t anything significant, as they were just staring at some containers and a graffiti covered brick wall. “The biggest mission to date.”  
  
“Mmh…” Dokyeom tried to ignore the nervousness in his stomach upon hearing that. He knew how big the mission was, but he just prefered to pretend it wasn’t. “But we’ll make it… Right?”

His words were confident at first, but they grew nervous. Wonwoo noticed and glanced over at the younger boy, smiling reassuringly. “Of course. Most of us have been here for long enough to measure our capabilities. We can do this.”

“I can trust you, right?” Dokyeom pouted a little, not meaning to act cute. He just needed to be sure.    
  
“Of course.” Wonwoo turned back to stick his head out of the window and took some deep breaths before closing it again. “Let’s get some rest before the mission. It’s gonna be energy draining.”   
  
Dokyeom nodded. He had already placed himself on the bed. For some reason he felt calm in Wonwoo’s presence. Maybe because Wonwoo was like a wise teacher to him, but it was a good thing to have nonetheless. 

Of course, the anxiety would overwhelm him once the lights were out. While Wonwoo was asleep, Dokyeom stared at the chipped off paint on the walls. The dread was clawing at him and ice was starting to freeze his bed. He was so terrified of messing it up, knowing the seriousness of the mission. He couldn’t afford to mess up. But something that made Dokyeom unable to sleep even more was the actual mission. Was what they were doing really for a good cause? Would he be happy with himself after this? Was this right? 

  
  


Everything happened so quickly. It was as if his life just sped forward and he had no control of it until he was alone with Jeonghan and The8. They had split up to three groups, one group being the attack in order to distract security. The other group, where Dokyeom was, were going to take the antidote. The third were ready as backup and making sure everything was okay. That being said, the first group was busy fighting a bunch of Leos and setting off bombs as distraction while Dokyeom and Jeonghan ran with The8. The smell of smoke was slightly overwhelming, but he knew it was a good thing. The more focus was on the ambush, the else focus would be on him.    
  
“The door…” Dokyeom mumbled, eyes widening as they came to a halt. They were here but… The door to their destination was made of titanium. How would they ever break through this?   
  
“The door what? Be on your guard, I’ll be back soon.” The8 said, running in and through the door. Ah. He had completely forgotten the boy could defy all law of science. Dokyeom stared with wide eyes as he panted, being brought out of his thoughts when Jeonghan held his shoulder.

“Dokyeom…” Jeonghan’s voice was low. Suspiciously low. His expression was serious too. “We can’t let this happen.”   
  
What? Dokyeom was confused. He stared at the older boy in confusion. “What... What do you mean, Jeonghan?”

“You feel the same way, don’t you? You don’t want to lose your powers. We’re not fighting for the right thing.” It was as if Jeonghan’s voice grew lower and lower as he spoke, trying his hardest not to be heard by anyone except Dokyeom. A lot of feelings were flaring inside the younger boy. He was shocked that Jeonghan was planning on going against the others, on  _ revolting _ in the middle of the mission. It was typical Jeonghan though. But he had to admit that Dokyeom did feel relieved he wasn’t alone in this thought. 

Jeonghan seemed to grow anxious by Dokyeom’s silence, and continued. "Joshua, Vernon and some of the others are joining me. Are you in?”   
  
“What will this mean?” Dokyeom felt scared. He was shaking. Was this really happening? Now of all times?    
  
“It means we’re stopping this bullshit. You didn’t run away from home and accept yourself as a faultblood just to get rid of your powers and become Seokmin again, did you?” Jeonghan’s expression was fierce. Dokyeom sighed. He knew where he was standing on this. Instead of replying verbally, he nodded. A smile tugged up on Jeonghan's face and his grip on Dokyeom’s shoulder loosened.

“Glad you got some sense in you. Just know this will get messy, alright?” Jeonghan said. Just their luck, The8 soon ran out - or, through - the titanium door with two suitcases in his hands and up to the others.

“Okay, I got it. The others are coming to get us so-” The8 stopped abruptly as Jeonghan knocked him out with his gun, forcefully hitting him on the skull.    
  
“Wha- H-how did you do that?” Dokyeom was in shock, to say the least. He looked at The8 who was lying unconscious on the floor and up at Jeonghan who picked up the suitcases in his hands.  
  
“Weakpoints. Here, take this and let’s run.” Jeonghan handed him one of the suitcases and ran. Dokyeom glanced back at The8, secretly wishing for the passed out boy’s forgiveness, and followed Jeonghan. The smoke was getting stronger the further they ran, but created some sort of fog to cover them if anyone came. 

“Wait, Jeonghan! What’s the plan?” Dokyeom coughed out, his grip tight on the suitcase.

“The plan is to get the fuck out of here. Joshua is waiting in a car. Come on, Jack Frost!” Jeonghan said, running deeper into the smoke. Dokyeom swore he could see the fire in front of him. But he knew if he froze it it would be easier for the rest of Seventeen - and the Leos - to find them.

Finding their way through the hallways on their way to the antidote was hard, but this was even harder. He felt his eyes get watery from the smoke and his lungs desperately wanting fresh air. Shit.

“Jeonghan? You’re here?” Double shit. Coups was here. Dokyeom accidentally bumped into Jeonghan in front of him, thankfully not dropping the suitcase. The two stopped and stared as Coups, along with Seungkwan and Mingyu, ran up to them. Despite minor rashes and cuts, they seemed okay. Coups looked around in confusion. “Where’s The8?”

“He… Uhmm…” Dokyeom mindlessly mumbled, too scared to even consider thinking. Imagining how angry Coups would be-   
  
“We left him behind.” Jeonghan’s voice was steady, the exact opposite of Dokyeom’s. Wow. Despite Jeonghan’s strength, the younger boy really felt like he was suffocating with fear. The walls were so small in this hallway. The smoke was blurring his vision. He could  _ feel _ Coups’ anger grow and fill the area.

“What?” Coups called closer, but halted in his steps as the sound of a trigger being loaded was heard. Jeonghan held his gun up, aiming it at the leader’s head. This only seemed to fuel  Coups’ anger even more. “Jeonghan, are you really doing this?!”   
  
Jeonghan pressed his lips together and tilted his head a little. His eyes were uncertain, but he tried to cover it. “Yes.”

  
And he pulled the trigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. It's been a while. I have a lot more time now to work on this fic, as my biggest assignments with school are over!!
> 
> For those of you who don't know, or need some explanation, Seungkwan mentioned in a fansign (and I think a concert DVD too?) that Seungkwan would name his kid "Boo Jaejoong", which means 'absence'. I thought it was funny.
> 
> (Also, I'm incredibly stressed out by Seventeen's comeback teasers. Thank you VM Project.)


	18. Chapter 11

The events after were in a haze. It was most likely due to how sick Dokyeom started to feel from the smoke. He was quite surprised he didn’t die in there. He and the others ran past fire, enemies and whatever else they could to get to Joshua. They encountered problems on their way out, such as confronting other members. Making it out alive was pure luck. When they finally had gotten into the car, Mingyu was bleeding. All Dokyeom could remember was seeing Mingyu’s bloody shirt and hear Vernon yell something in English before he blacked out. 

Once he woke up again, he felt a breeze on him. A refreshing breeze. He opened his eyes slowly to see Joshua’s face about an inch away from his. He got surprised, but once he found out Joshua’s hands were on his mouth and nose he  _ freaked out. _

“Shh… Calm down.” The older placed a hand on his chest, magically relaxing Dokyeom again. Joshua turned his head up, telling the others that Dokyeom had awoken.

“Good. Shit.” Jeonghan turned to look at Joshua and Dokyeom quickly, only to turn back to Mingyu’s bleeding shoulder. “Once he’s okay can you take over this, Shua?”   
  
Joshua merely nodded, letting his hand off Dokyeom’s chest. He smiled down at the newly awaken boy. “Sorry, I just needed to clean your lungs. We might’ve lost you there.”   
  
Dokyeom could only nod, feeling kind of scared to breathe now that he felt Joshua so close. Though once the healer of the team let go he took a deep breath, feeling thankful he didn’t breathe smoke. Joshua moved quickly, leaving Dokyeom on his own there. He sat up, getting support from his elbows and saw that they were only half the members they used to. Realization hit him and the nerve-wrecking feeling in his stomach grew quickly.

Joshua and Jeonghan were digging a bullet out from Mingyu’s shoulder, Vernon was separating all their phones and rebuilding them, Dino sat next to Wonwoo and- Wait, Wonwoo?

Sitting up properly, Dokyeom rubbed his forehead and groaned. For how long had he been out? The car was parked in front of him and they were in some sort of field… Feeling the grass under his fingers, Dokyeom looked up to see the sunset. He felt surprisingly calm, which got to be a positive thing considering everything that happened earlier.  Or bad. Who knew. He practically abandoned his friends in enemy territory. He joined a revolt, lead by Jeonghan.  _ Jeonghan _ of all people. He should feel terrible, but he was calm. Maybe it was thanks to Joshua? He’d like to believe it was. 

“Hey, Dokyeom.” Dokyeom turned to Dino and Wonwoo as Wonwoo’s deep voice filled his ears. “Come here?”  
  
Slowly and steadily, he rose up and walked over to them. He looked down at the grass and saw the suitcases sitting between Wonwoo and Dino, still closed. Sitting down next to Wonwoo, he looked around quickly before opening his mouth, “So… Uhm…”  
  
“Vernon’s trying to get rid of Woozi’s stalker software, we gotta guard the suitcases while making sure no one’s approaching.” Wonwoo explained. His dark eyes scanned Dokyeom, a pale hand rubbing the soot off from the other’s cheek. Ignoring Dokyeom’s awkward blush, he asked; “What happened down there? If you mind telling?”  
  
Dokyeom stuttered for a while, trying to think back to the Leos’ headquarters. He looked up at the sky once again, lost in thought. 

 

 

_ A body fell to the ground with a thud, the sound of the gunshot echoing through the hallways. Coups looked pale. He stared at Jeonghan with dark eyes and turned around, seeing the victim being a Leo.  _

_ It was as if the air was knocked out of all of them. Dokyeom felt himself struggle more as the lack of oxygen was making him dizzy. He couldn’t stay staring at the body, and instead looked around, noticing how Mingyu was eyeing him uncertainly while fiddling with a gun in his hand. Jeonghan seemed to get tired from the smoke, as did Coups. Only Seungkwan seemed not to struggle with his breathing, but he looked shocked. He must’ve thought it was one of Jeonghan’s shenanigans again. _

_“Are you crazy? Jeonghan, where’s The8-” Coups turned back around, his expression still grim. He was stopped in his words, as Mingyu had already knocked him out. Wow. Dokyeom stared down at Coups in silence as the oldest member fell down unconscious, just like how The8 had before._  

_ “Is this a habit? Is there some pattern I’m not following?” Dokyeom asked, looking in between Jeonghan and Mingyu. The two shrugged their shoulders casually, as if it was natural for them. Maybe since they weren’t faultbloods, they naturally grew more skilled with weapons and hand-to-hand combat. _

_“W-...What are you guys doing? Is this a joke?” Dokyeom turned around to see Seungkwan. Despite the smoke covering most of his vision, the younger boy was visibly pale and wide eyed. Seungkwan knelt down to Coups, shaking him softly in an attempt to wake him up. He then looked up at Jeonghan with confusion, “What is this?”_ _  
_ _  
_ __“We’re leaving. Join or stay, you decide.” Jeonghan said, getting ready to leave already. Dokyeom, who had been staring down at Seungkwan this entire time, swallowed painfully. Seungkwan was still desperately trying to wake Coups up, his hands shaking and breath starting to tremble. The younger boy even tried to wipe blood away from him, blood from the deceased Leo next to them. It was a messy scene indeed.  

_ “Let’s go.” Jeonghan walked on ahead, passing both Mingyu and Dokyeom. Mingyu turned and followed. Dokyeom was about to do the same, until Seungkwan called for him. He stopped in his steps and looked down at his high school friend. _

_ “Please… Don’t go…” Seungkwan sobbed out, looking up at the other boy.  _ _   
_ _   
_ __ “Seungkwan… You don’t want them to take your powers, right? We worked so hard on this…” Dokyeom said, looking down at him with stingy eyes. The smoke was really getting to him now. He didn’t kneel down to reach Seungkwan’s level though. But he didn’t need to, it was clear that Seungkwan was crying. “What do you want to do?”

_ “Stay… Seokmin, please…” His voice was breaking, fingers clutching to Coups’ head on his lap. The tears were streaming. Dokyeom was silent. _

_ “Kyeom, come on. The fire’s too much, building’s unstable!” Mingyu said, clearly not wanting to waste more time here. Dokyeom sighed, trying his hardest to ignore Seungkwan’s crying. _

_ "Seokmin..." _

_ “... Seokmin is dead.” Dokyeom said, looking down at Seungkwan one last time before walking away with Mingyu. _

 

 

“I… We left them.” Dokyeom mumbled, the image of Seungkwan’s crying face stuck in his mind. He was sickened by how cold he was toward Seungkwan. Shit.

“Yeah, but like- Are they alive?” Wonwoo tilted his head. Dokyeom shrugged, honestly not wanting to think about it. He explained how they only knew of two unconscious members, nothing else. Wonwoo studied his expression and nodded, understanding he shouldn’t have pressed further on the topic.

“Okay, guys. We might have to stay a little longer.” Jeonghan said, walking closer to the others. He sat down on the grass, next to Vernon, and poked at the phone bits. “Mingyu needs to rest. The others know what our car looks like so when we drive we need to do it fast.”   
  
Dokyeom noticed how stressed Jeonghan looked. With his pale face dark circles under his eyes started to form. Dried blood covered his knuckles. The sleeves of his shirt were torn. Overall, he was a mess. But to make it even more ironic, or sad, Jeonghan smiled widely as he looked at the younger boys. “It will be good for us though, we’ll get some fresh air.”

Having Jeonghan to lead them was scary. Everything was uncertain and because neither Coups, Woozi or Hoshi were on their side, it felt as if they’d constantly be inferior. The only source of comfort for Dokyeom was that Joshua was here. Joshua was good at making the atmosphere calm, which was needed during this time. 

They stayed the whole night in that field, Joshua doing his best to regain Mingyu’s health so they could sleep well. Sleeping on the car was cramped, but it was okay for Dokyeom. He kind of needed it. Vernon was pressing his face against the older’s shoulder as they slept while Dino wriggled about between Dokyeom and Jeonghan. It was all well until Wonwoo suddenly sat up. He shook Jeonghan awake, whispering something to him that made Jeonghan shoot up. Cursing under his breath, he climbed over to the driver’s seat and started the car. Wonwoo proceeded to wake the others, obviously being met with questions as the car drove.

“The others know where we are. There’s trackers in the car.” Wonwoo said, unlocking the suitcases to make sure all antidotes still were there. Dokyeom, still drowsy and yawning, felt like a child driving home late with his parents and falling asleep in the car. Except, of course, this wasn’t a domestic situation. Dino was rubbing his eyes while yawning into his palm. Mingyu groaned, slightly nauseas.

 “What do we do?” Vernon asked, sleep still all over him.   
  
“If they come, we shoot.” Jeonghan said, making sharp turns and changing gear in the most un-smooth way possible. “But only when necessary, we got a limited amount of bullets.”  
  
“Dokyeom, here.” Wonwoo said, handing him the trackers. “Freeze these.”  
  
He did as he was told, staring down at the blinking red lights from the trackers as ice spread around them. He soon made an ice cube of the electronics, happy with his accomplishment. “Do we throw is out?”  
  
Joshua and Wonwoo looked at each other, obviously uncertain of what to do. This made Dokyeom’s anxiety grow. The trackers would raise question if they threw them out, but if they kept them in the car they were at a risk as none of them knew if they were resistant to cold or anything. They really had _no idea_ what they were doing. 

“Just throw it out.” Jeonghan took another sharp turn. “We’re leaving tonight anyway.”   
  
Dokyeom nodded and did as he was told, trying to listen when Vernon asked where they were going.    
  
“I know a guy who can get us out of here. Illegal as shit but since half of us aren’t faultbloods it should be easy. We’ll be there soon.” Jeonghan was obviously stressed out, but tried to keep calm for the others. Dokyeom noticed how the older was shaking. He heard coughing and turned to see Mingyu curled up in his seat with Joshua trying desperately to help. 

“Calm down, we’re almost there.” like a mother soothing her child, Joshua gently placed a hand on Mingyu’s wound. Mingyu looked pale and he was shivering. Dokyeom frowned, recalling back when Seungkwan talked about how he burnt his hand and how easily Joshua healed it. Why was Joshua seeming to struggle with this? Was it because a burn was different from a gunshot? Were his powers affected by the stress of the situation? While Dokyeom wanted to know more, he knew this wasn’t the right time. Right now, the important thing was to get away.   
  
And getting away they did. The weather turned grim but they didn’t fear death as they had grown adjusted to Jeonghan’s driving by that point. Wonwoo reassured them that the rain would complicate the situation for the others if they caught up on them. Dokyeom obviously put a lot of trust into Wonwoo as he calmed down significantly upon hearing that.

 

Next time Dokyeom dared to look out of the car window, he noticed how they weren’t in a field anymore. Jeonghan stopped the car by an empty fishing harbour. The sun was rising too, painting the sky with purple and pink hues. 

“Alright, we grab the things we need and get the fuck out of here. Longfei has a boat for us.” Jeonghan said, grabbing some things in the seat next to him before opening the car door. Dokyeom and Vernon took the suitcases, Joshua and Wonwoo grabbed the weapons (which had been placed in boring blue sports bags) and Dino helped Mingyu up and out of the car.

“Ahh…” Dokyeom looked over his shoulder to see how carefully Dino tried to be with Mingyu. Unfortunately Mingyu was still in pain, as his face was stuck in a grimace and he was wincing. 

“Let’s hurry before the sun gets any higher up. Mingyu, you cool?” Jeonghan asked, looking behind him as he walked. Mingyu nodded, mumbling something under his breath. Jeonghan, obviously not hearing it, turned back and walked towards the only other living person on the harbour. He was smoking and clad in black, and if Dokyeom squinted he could see a frown.   
  
“Longfei! Long time no see, man!” Jeonghan grinned, holding out his arms to go in for a hug. Longfei ignored it, throwing the butt of his cigarette down on the ground before tramping on it. 

“You look like shit.” He said, speaking Korean with a thick accent. Dokyeom felt slightly intimidated and moved closer to Vernon, hoping Longfei wouldn’t bite him or something.

“Haha… I missed you too… Anyway, we kinda need to skedaddle so how’s the boat looking?” Jeonghan chuckled, looking at the boat closest to them, hoping it was the one they would travel with.  
  
“Get in.” Longfei walked toward the boat Jeonghan had been staring at. The others didn’t waste time on boarding the boat, being careful not to drop anything. Dokyeom glanced over at the car, thinking it would be weird to abandon it. It was obvious the car wouldn’t fit on the boat, but it would complicate it for them later on. Oh well, Jeonghan could probably fix it. Probably. 

“Drop your baggage here, we’ll be in Korea in a couple of hours.” Longfei said as they were all in the cramped space inside the boat. He then walked back up to start the engine. Dokyeom looked around and placed the suitcase carefully on the table in front of him. It was crammed, almost less space there than in the van. At least hypermasculinity wasn’t a problem and he had no issue having his face pressed against Vernon’s shoulder. Except the smell of not having showered in a long time.  

The boat took sail and they could tell my the loud noise of a motor. Thankfully they wouldn’t be struggling with a silence, since none of them would be able to sleep despite the need for it after that car ride. Joshua resumed to mending Mingyu’s wound and Jeonghan went up to Longfei, mumbling something of a fee, leaving the kids to themselves. 

“So… We’re going home.” Vernon said, the emptiness in his voice apparent. “Without the others.”   
  
“It feels… Weird.” Dino mumbled, crossing his arms. Dokyeom scratched his eyebrow, thinking of how the others must’ve felt when they left. Betrayed? Of course. Shocked? Probably. Considering how Jeonghan pulled through with this, shock couldn’t be the main feeling. While Jeonghan was the type of person to come up with ideas from the weirdest places, he contradicted himself as he was still predictable. The other members of Seventeen knew his mentality and knew what his actions would be. It was reassuring that Wonwoo and Joshua were here though, two faultbloods who always kept their head cool. They would even out Jeonghan’s character and possibly make it easier for the entire gang to  _ not _ get mauled by the abandoned members in China.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon.” Joshua said. If it was directed to Dino or to Mingyu was unclear, but nonetheless they were soothing words. “When we get home it’ll be better.”   
  
Dokyeom pressed his lips together into a thin line, staring at the dried blood on Mingyu’s shirt. Would it really be better? If so, how? Would they just return to their schedule as if nothing had happened? Would they ruin the antidote and make up with the other members? It wasn’t until they heard steps ascending the small staircase down to the room they were in that Dokyeom could pull himself out of his thoughts.

“Good news, Longfei is willing to drive us back home to the house.” Jeonghan said as he entered the room. “Bad news, we need to get rid of all Woozi’s spying material, or find some other untrackable place to stay.”   
  
“What about the fee?” Joshua asked, looking up at Jeonghan.    
  
“Uhm… We’ll have to give all the Xanax to him, his drug smuggling is slow nowadays. Then he said something in Chinese that I don’t understand, but I think he wanted us to participate in his human trafficking things-”   
  
“Jeonghan!” Joshua frowned, not happy with what he heard. None of them were.

“Relax!” Jeonghan held his hands up, smiling crookedly. “I’m sorry, it was a joke. He’s humble and only needs the Xanax.”   


Joshua sighed and rolled his eyes, then turned back to Mingyu. Cruel jokes to lighten the mood was a bad habit Jeonghan possessed, but it was nothing to be angry about now. Everyone knew that. Teamwork was what they needed, no matter how dysfunctional this group was. It had to work.

“When we get back and deal with all of Woozi’s shit we need to stay lowkey for a while.” Jeonghan said, sitting down next to Mingyu and looked around seriously between the boys. “I don’t know when, but eventually the others will come back. And they will fight. We need to be prepared, be on guard and keep the antidote away from them.”   
  
“Isn’t there… an easier way to solve this?” Dino asked carefully, his voice calm despite the nervousness in his expression. Jeonghan held his hands together and leaned forward in his seat, smiling at the youngest.

 “I don’t think so. Knowing them, they probably want us dead.” Jeonghan said, his eyes carrying so much worry. “But don’t think too much about it. We got all the weapons and everything, we can defend ourselves.”  
  
The room was silent for a while after that. To switch subject, Jeonghan mentioned how it would take about four hours more until they were in Korea. Joshua jokingly mentioned how the timing was perfect, as he had to study for an exam at school. The others laughed at that. But laughter was, as always, a lousy excuse for healing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On todays menu we got minshua, minshua, a little more minshua and some 2seung. TFIOB-wise this is some explicit shipping content, be warned!!
> 
> Okay, as "unprofessional" this might sound, I'm very conflicted over the ending. While we're only halfway through (probably not even that) I'm torn on what to do. I'll do my best!
> 
> Whats your favorite song on Seventeen's new album? I really like "My I", thanks chinaline. 
> 
> (Also Seungkwan's dusty pink hair is so cute I love him so much)


	19. Chapter 12

Even though a year passed, none of them had completely healed. They pretended to be okay, as if the new chapter in their life was good. But the past was and would always be important for them.

Now they shared a loft apartment, having abandoned the house due to how much guilt they felt staying there, and they were faring quite nicely. The apartment was closer to the city, so their lives could continue on with new and improved routines.

Joshua was still going to school, happy with how he had more time for his studies now. They were all going to school now. Well, all except Jeonghan and Wonwoo. Going to school was a privilege, a good tool for staying low in Korea. But it was tiring as well. Dokyeom was happy to pretend he was a normal student after such a long time. He was happy to have classmates he could call friends, happy to not be shut in. Even Dino mentioned he was glad to come to school after however long he hadn’t gone. 

Of course there was a risk with going out though. A risk of being exposed. Dokyeom knew this and it was an anxiety that clawed at him every morning when the alarm rang at 7am. While this was an issue though, so would the return of the others be. Everyone in the gang knew they’d return one day. When though?

“Hey, Woojin.” Dokyeom looked up, suddenly feeling how heavy his head felt on his palm. He saw his classmates calling for him.

“Yeah, sorry.” Dokyeom got up and followed them out of the classroom. Woojin was the name Woozi gave him on his fake passport, and the name he had to use to pretend he was a normal member of society. Dokyeom wouldn’t work. He was tired of using different named though, and sometimes wished he had stuck to Seokmin. But he had to keep his head high and remember change was good. Maybe not all change, but most of it.

As soon as he walked out from the classroom he wanted to scream. His eyes widened as he thought he saw someone he knew that  _ wasn’t _ supposed to be there. Among the crowd of other students all wearing their dull colored uniforms, he saw Seungkwan. He saw the younger’s blank expression for a second before he disappeared in the crowd.

“Woojin, come on! Or we’re going without you.” his classmate said from behind him. 

“Ah, sorry.” Dokyeom turned around, the color on his face drained

“Man, you cool? You’re super pale.” The classmate, Dongjin, raised a hand up to feel Dokyeom’s forehead. He withdrew his hand immediately though. “Man, you’re cold.”  
  
“He’s always cold. Like our own personal cooler.” a female classmate, Minkyeong, intervened. “It makes him  _ cool. _ Come on, I don’t wanna be late.”

Dokyeom assured them he would catch up with them, so the two went on ahead. Thank God for Minkyeong. Dongjin was the type of person to question many things and make the person in question feel like they’re being interrogated. Minkyeong on the other hand doesn’t seem to care about prying on other people's personal matters, and she usually succeeds in making Dongjin momentarily do the same. Dokyeom knew it was because Dongjin had a crush on Minkyeong, but he also knew Minkyeong was way out of Dongjin’s league. He didn’t know much more as love triangles and teenage drama wasn’t what kept him going exactly. He liked the companionship, but that was about it.

Walking the completely other direction of the cafeteria, Dokyeom searched for Mingyu. The two went to the same school, but unfortunately not the same class. But it was okay as they’d occasionally meet in the hallway and talk. The two made a story up about how they were childhood friends from the same city in the country, and no more questions had been asked since.

“Mi- Seohyun.” The amount of times Dokyeom did this was uncountable. Mingyu looked up from his comic book, skipping lunch as usual as he always had something in his bag to survive off, and smiled.

“What’s up?” The two were alone in the classroom. Dokyeom brought tension, which obviously ruined Mingyu’s comic reading mood as he put the book away quickly.

“Did you see him too?” Dokyeom asked, looking behind him to see the classroom door closed.

“See who?” Dokyeom turned back to see a confused Mingyu. A very confused Mingyu.

“Seugkwan.” He whispered, but was heard. Mingyu’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped.

“What? Are they here?” Mingyu suddenly searched through his bag. “We need to call Jeonghan! The others-... How did they find us…”

While Mingyu got his phone out and called Jeonghan, Dokyeom looked out the window, having other feelings than panic in him. Longing, was it?

Looking out the window he gasped as he saw Seungkwan again, looking up at him. Same expression.

“Kyeom?” was all Mingyu said as he saw Dokyeom sprint out the classroom. Running faster than he thought he was able, his feet were surprisingly not asking him to stop. Other students stared in confusion, but he just didn’t care. He had to see if this really was him. If it really was Seungkwan. Once he did come outside though, Seungkwan was nowhere to be found.    
  
“What the…” Dokyeom muttered between pants, holding his stomach from the cramps he was getting after running that quickly. He looked up at the school building, meeting Mingyu’s face instantly. The younger was talking on the phone, staring down at Dokyeom with wide eyes.

Before he knew it, they were on their way home. Mingyu said their dad had gotten sick and they needed to attend to it to a teacher, and the two were then on their merry way back to the apartment. 

“You’re insane, you know that right?” Mingyu mumbled, kicking rocks as they hurried down the street. Dokyeom felt ashamed. How could he run after Seungkwan when he knew they were technically enemies now? After abandoning them in China like that, there was no way Dokyeom could just run and hug them. He knew he was gonna get scolded by Jeonghan or Wonwoo later, so Mingyu was saving his breath. 

“I know…” He mumbled, shaking a little. He wanted everything to be okay. He wanted all 13 of them to be together. But he knew it was impossible now. And he knew that something big was coming. 

  
  


“You  _ ran _ to Seungkwan?  _ RAN?!” _ Jeonghan was shakingly furious. He had already scolded Dokyeom for 20 minutes straight, but was still going. Every detail of what had happened was something to complain about to him. Luckily, Joshua interfered.

“But are you sure you saw Seungkwan? There’s no way he could disappear so quickly, right?” Joshua inquired, crossing his arms while looking extremely concerned. Everyone had gathered to the apartment, standing in a circle in the middle of the floor. Everyone wore the same expression as Joshua. Well, except for Jeonghan who was literally fuming.

“Are you taking his side?” Jeonghan snapped at Joshua.   
  
“No! I’m just asking… Mingyu,” Joshua turned to face Mingyu, who was chewing on his lip. “Did you see Seungkwan as well?”   
  
The room turned dead silent. They then remembered how Dokyeom’s mental health had been failing him the past year, and hallucinations had happened to him before. BUt never at this scale. Slowly, Mingyu shook his head. It all made sense, it was a false alarm.

Jeonghan groaned in relief, rubbing his hands on his face and through his hair. He turned to Dokyeom. “I’m so sorry, oh my God.”

Dokyeom just shook his head. “It’s fine, we all thought it was him.”   
  
On the inside, he felt sad. Upset that it wasn’t actually Seungkwan he had seen. But it would make sense that it wasn’t Seungkwan. The boy he saw was wearing their old school uniform. 

Receiving a pat on the shoulder, Dokyeom stared at the floor in silence. He felt his insides break and tear slowly.

  
  


“Ah, that guy…” Vernon sicked, digging his hands into his pockets as he exited the 7-eleven. With a plastic bag filled with soda around his wrist, all he wanted was to hurry home as the sun was setting. Living in a city wasn’t something he had grown used to yet, and he didn’t like being out in the dark alone. He hated having to go on late errands, but the boys really needed to calm their nerves after that shared panic. “Always starting something. It really is our Dokyeom…”

“Dokyeom, huh?” Vernon halted, shivering when hearing that familiar voice. He looked behind him, seeing  _ that _ familiar face. 

“Nice seeing you again, Vernon.” Seungkwan smiled, a wide grin plastered on his face. He had visibly lost weight and his hair was blond. Something else was his aura and how different it was. “Missed you.”   


“S-Seungkwan? Is that really you?” It had to be the real one. Vernon knew he didn’t hallucinate.    
  
“Of course it’s me. Did you forget my face already?” Seungkwan walked closer, not giving Vernon a chance to speak before he held a hand up to the younger’s lips. The hand then slided to his cheek and down his jaw. “I’d never forget your face.”   
  
“What are you doing? Ouch!” Vernon drew back, feeling an uncomfortable heat on his chin suddenly.

“I’m warning you.” Seungkwan lost his smile and his expression turned grim, eyes darkening and fists clenched. “Run and tell your friends…”  
  
Suddenly Vernon just felt his legs take him home. He couldn’t control it, and not even caring that his sodas were probably going to fall out of the plastic bag. Not caring that Seungkwan could follow him back to the apartment. This was real, this was happening. He  _ had _ to warn the others.

_ “Run and tell your friends… That Coups wants your heads.” _

Running all the way back without looking behind him or stopping, he got his hand out of his pocket with keys in hand. Dropping the key in front of the apartment door, he cursed, picked it up and opened the door. He ran up the stairs, literally wheezing while his feet carried him up the steps. Unfortunately, he was too late.

Their door was open and it was obvious the cause was intrusion, not Wonwoo wanting to warmly welcome Vernon and the sodas.

He halted and stared at the door, panting. Vernon stepped closer, swallowing his worst fear and walked in.   
  
“Right on time.” A voice so deep it was rumbling his eardrums filled the silence. Coups was staring at him with a grim smile and a dark look in his eyes. But the first thing Vernon noticed was the scar that went down his arm. The arm that was holding Joshua in a chokehold. Glancing over at Joshua, he saw tears streaming down his face as he struggled with getting out of Coups’ grip.   
  
“Even brought soda? Did you miss us that much?” Hoshi smirked, suddenly a soda bottle were in his hand. Ah right, he was the faultblood version of lightning. Vernon dropped the plastic bag and walked closer. In Hoshi’s other hand, he held Wonwoo’s hair tightly in a fist. Wonwoo’s face was bloody and beat.  
  
“W-what are you doing?” Vernon asked, staring wide eyed at the scene in front of him. “Let go of them!”  
  
“Where’s Jeonghan?” Coups asked, ignoring what Vernon said.   
  
“What?”    
  
“Where is he? The traitor that brainwashed you all to go against us.” Suddenly, the eldest thew Joshua  down at the floor and walked over to Vernon, fire sparking around his knitted fists. “Tell me or else I’ll-”   
  
“We weren’t brainwashed! We did this because we wanted it.” Vernon wanted to back away, but he was frozen stuck in his place.    
  
“How? You’d rather backstab us than to fight for our cause?” The fire grew in his fist and it was as if he was ready to strike Vernon at any moment now. He was fucked.

“Fighting for our cause?” Wonwoo broke in, blood spat out from his mouth. “ What are we even fighting for anymore? Seventeen is about fighting for who we are, not what we aren’t. We didn’t join just to- just to be normal!” 

Coups halted. Hoshi’s grip on Wonwoo loosened. Joshua’s sniffling stopped. Vernon could feel his heart at his throat.

“You know nothing…” Hoshi mumbled, suddenly smacking Wonwoo across the face. “Jeon Wonwoo, you’re a fool.”  
  
“Where’s Jeonghan, Vernon?” Turning back, Coups looked at Vernon with determination. Vernon knew it was over.  
  
“I don’t know! I really don’t know!” Vernon backed away slowly, but stopped as he bumped into someone. He turned around and saw Seungkwan standing still, looking at him with the same smile as before.

“How can you not know? You’re hiding him, aren’t you?” Coups’ voice was getting louder and louder.    
  
Vernon held his hands up as if that would protect him from Coups’ fury. “Can’t we- Can’t we just talk it out? Solve this in not such a bloody way?”   
  
“Talk it out? Do you know what we went through when you all backstabbed us?!” Coups was so mad at this point, Vernon was surprised he hadn’t been killed then and there. “Do you know what it was like in China? No,  you didn’t. You hoped we died there in those headquarters, right?”  
  
“Hey guys, what’s-...” Dokyeom’s voice filled the room as he entered, stopping by to see everything that was about to happen before him. “...Going on?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm sorry for not having updated in a while. I graduated and then i went overseas without having much inspiration to write. 
> 
> I got a little stressed with updating, so I decided to finish this quickly and leave it. I'm sorry if it's short and the grammar is off haha.


	20. Chapter 13

Damn them. Damn them all. Seungkwan tried his hardest to conceal the tears, but it just wasn’t good enough. Ah, he was freezing. When Dokyeom arrived, he put a stop to them and force Seungkwan, Coups and Hoshi to the ground. Then they ran away. Seungkwan had spent the last hour trying to defrost himself and the others. And it was so cold.

“Seungkwan, stop.” Coups said, his back turned to the two with arms crossed.

“What do you mean stop? My foot’s frozen!” Hoshi cried out, freezing just as much as the others in the room.

“I mean stop crying.” Coups turned around, looking down at Seungkwan whose cheeks had turned red. His eyes were watery and the tears were threatening to fall. He was caught and felt embarrassed. This was the second time Dokyeom heartlessly abandoned him. This must’ve been what heartbreak was like.

  
  
  


Dokyeom sighed and stared outside the window. The sun had set and it was dark out. Unfortunately, he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep. He wouldn’t even be able to stay there for a long time either. The night was going to be long, and he had to prepare for a fight.

He turned his head to watch the others fidgeting uncomfortably. Wonwoo was dead silent while Joshua and Vernon both mumbled things to one another in English. Vernon looked scared while Joshua tried to not look scared. They ran away again. Joshua couldn’t get in contact with Jeonghan and feared the worst while they hid in a random apartment building that stank of beer.   
  
“We need to do something… We need to meet with the others.” Dokyeom mumbled, making the others turn to him with wide eyes.

“But how? Joshua can’t contact Jeonghan.” Vernon whispered, pale as a sheet.  
  
“I-I don’t know… I can contact Mingyu and see where he is, if he knows about Jeonghan’s whereabouts.” Dokyeom said, pulling out his phone from his pocket. He turned to Wonwoo while dialing Mingyu’s number. “Wonwoo, can you do something to keep Coups and the others distracted?”  


Wonwoo blinked. “I think so… But they will figure out it’s me, so hurry.”   
  
Wonwoo got up from sitting on the sticky floor and stood by the door, looking out the window build in the door. He sighed and got his hands up. “Let’s rumble.”

 

  
There was less and less traffic by the minute as everyone just wanted to go home and sleep. Seungkwan could only relate to them, watching as the last cars were driving off to get home as quickly as possible. Night city life wasn’t a thing in this town, apparently.

Suddenly a loud rumble was heard. It echoed through the streets and Seungkwan wouldn’t dare to admit that hairs were rising and he got goosebumps. Thunder was not Seungkwan’s friend. Neither was rain and the first couple of drops had fallen already. Why did the weather change so drastically?   
  
“Classic, Wonwoo…” Hoshi muttered, putting his phone in his pocket after having texted Woozi to meet up.    
  
“Wonwoo?” Seungkwan rose a brow. What did Wonwoo have to do with this?   
  
“Wonwoo’s powers. He controls the weather.” Hoshi scratched the back of his head, looking at Coups whom was walking in front of the two. “It’s typical of him to do this. They want to make us slower and hinder us from reaching them.”

Seungwan was silent, looking up at the dark rumbling clouds. He sighed. This was going to be a long night.

 

 

While waiting for Mingyu to pick up the call, Vernon and Wonwoo walked out to keep an eye out. Vernon got a gun on him, something that Joshua managed to pick up on the way when running out from the apartment, so they should be able to defend themselves.  
  
Dokyeom watched as the phone called and called, but no one on the other line answered. It worried him. What if something happened to Mingyu? Were anyone safe? Were they even alive?

He sighed and turned to Joshua, who was staring back at him. Joshua seemed to be aching to say something, but unsure if he should or not.

“What’s up, Joshua?” Dokyeom asked, listening as the phone continued to dial in the background. Joshua seemed relieved, as his shoulders grew less tense and his expression calmed.

“I… I’ve kept something from you.” He started, transferring his nervousness to Dokyeom.

“Do you know what the government do when they catch you? Why most of us are hidden?” Joshua’s expression was serious, and Dokyeom feared the worst. “It’s because of the faultblood military training program. They never talk about faultbloods in news because they wipe the neighbourhoods and take all kids that can be used in war. Everyone else are either used to breed new faultbloods or sterilized, depending on the powers you possess. That’s what Jeonghan didn’t know and that's why they wanted  to get rid of the etb gene.”   
  
What? What just happened?

“Then why did you join Jeonghan? If this is what they do to us?” That was all Dokyeom could ask. His mind was racing and turning in all different directions and he had no idea what to think at that moment.   
  
“He needs me.” Joshua said. Simple as that. Too simple to make Dokyeom feel any better. Why in the hell would Jeonghan go against the original plan? Why didn’t anyone inform him of the military?

“Actually, it was a secret between Coups, Woozi and Hoshi. I only found out because I needed to aid in making something that resembled the antidote.”   
  
_ Antidote. _ It’s been a while since Dokyeom heard that word.    
  
“Where’s the antidotes now?”   
  
“...” Joshua sat silently. “In the apartment, where we left Coups.”   
  
Right then, the call got through and Mingyu picked up.

  
  


They reached a parking house of four levels, running as fast as their legs could take them and were shocked at the sight. Woozi stood there with Jeonghan on the ground. 

“K-kyeom…” Mingyu choked, trying to reach for him despite his obvious struggle. Next to him was his smashed in phone. No wonder the line cut off. Dokyeom noticed both Mingyu and Jeonghan were grasping for air and it was clearly Woozi’s doing. How strong was this guy even?   
  
“Ah, you made it in time.” Woozi held a hand up and suddenly, all air in Dokyeoms lungs escaped. He fell to his knees and made a couple of choking sounds, trying his hardest to breathe but it was impossible. It felt as if he was drowning, with no way or getting up to the surface to breathe.    
  
“Dokyeom!” Joshua ran up to them with Wonwoo and Vernon following shortly after. Before Woozi could do the same to them as he did to Dokyeom, Joshua managed to pull a gun out and shoot. Woozi hissed, drawing his arm back even though the bullet went into his leg. Kneeling down, Woozi tended to his injury as best as he could. Grabbing a gun from the apartment before leaving was a good idea after all.

Dokyeom, along with Jeonghan and Mingyu, panted. Suddenly, like a door opening, air came through to their lungs. What a relief. Vernon noted how Jeonghan and Mingyu’s faces regained their usual skin tones and eventually their breathing evened out. Through Woozi’s winching, this entire scene was a mess. And if there’s something they learnt, the three leaders of Seventeen were truly ruthless.

“Fuck… Fuck…” Woozi’s teeth were gritted as he continued to hiss in pain. Jeonghan got up soon enough and hurried over to the others, panting.

“Thank God you guys came. We- we were looking for Dino… He got out of the apartment somehow and then we met with Woozi and-”   
  
“It’s okay Jeonghan, you don’t need to explain.” As long as they didn’t try to escape from them. Dokyeom helped Mingyu up and looked down at the broken phone. It looked as if an animal had mauled it. Scary.

“Where is-...” Woozi panted, growing pale from the pain of the gunshot. “Where’s the antidote?”   
  
Everyone turned quiet, but only two people were visibly uncomfortable. Dokyeom noticed how Mingyu seemed to shrink under Woozi’s glare.

“The kid’s got it, doesn’t he? He’s here?” Woozi grinned. Dokyeom turned his head slowly, noticing how Jeonghan was shaking. But he managed to turn back in time, stopping Woozi from getting up despite his wound and froze his feet stuck to the ground.

“Fuck!” Woozi exclaimed, his injured leg frozen up to his injury. Yikes. Dokyeom was definitely on the bottom of Woozi’s ‘favorite person’ list.

“I… I’ll go up and get Dino.” Jeonghan said, taking the gun from Joshua and running past Woozi. Dino had the antidote? What was he doing with that? Dokyeom followed the older boy, needing some answers.

“Jeonghan, wait up!” Dokyeom panted, rushing up the stairs with Jeonghan. Jeonghan ignored him though, continuing to run up the steps. They had heard the others arrive and a fight ensued. Dokyeom felt bad that he couldn’t be there and help, but he knew the antidote was more important. But why was it so important now? After what Joshua told him, Dokyeom had no idea what he wanted anymore. He obviously didn’t want to be used as a testing tool, but neither did he want to lose his powers - or maybe more. Coups would probably make sure he’d lose his life if he wasn’t careful.

Running up to the third floor this time, Jeonghan and Dokyeom were met with Coups and Seungkwan who turned to them quickly, ignoring their former engagement.

“Where is he?” Coups asked, Jeonghan ignored him though.    
  
“Dokyeom, stay here! I’ll get Dino.” Jeonghan cast one final look at the younger before sprinting back to the stairs, going up. Coups hissed and ran after him, pushing Dokyeom out of his way with a fiery first before Dokyeom could do anything.   
  
“Ouch!” His jacket caught aflame, nice. Dokyeom hurried to take the jacket off, hoping no serious injury happened to him despite literally having fire hit into your chest. Trying to think positive was hard in this situation.

“Shit…” Dokyeom looked down as his jacket, one of his favorites, was burning on the ground. He turned to look up and saw Seungkwan look uncomfortable yet determined. Fire ignited around his clenched fists.

“Seung...kwan…” He had to fight him, didn’t he?   


 

“Dino! Dino!”  Jeonghan shouted, looking around the fourth and final floor frantically. With a gun in his hand, it looked like he was out to kill someone But he wasn’t.   
  
“Dino, come out.” Coups said, his voice low and filled with anger. Jeonghan turned around and aimed his gun at the oldest.

“Don’t you even  _ dare _ try to threaten him.” Jeonghan hissed, shooting without care. Jeonghan knew that despite Coups’ adaptability powers, he wasn’t immune to gunshots. 

Blinded by rage, Jeonghan shot away, ignoring how Coups, in return, tried to harm him. And contrary to popular belief, Jeonghan overpowered Coups. Soon enough, having taken all bullets in Jeonghan’s gun, Coups was on the cold floor. His blood was all that was keeping him warm now.

“Looks like I won.”Jeonghan smiled, walking closer to Coups until he sat down on top of his stomach and let the oldest’s blood soak through his clothes. 

“Your blood is so warm… All over the place.” The rage that once filled Jeonghan was gone and replaced with something else. Something that dazed him, yet was familiar to Coups. Despite struggling with breathing and coughing blood, Coups’ struggle to stay alive was being ignored. Jeonghan bent down and kissed Coups softly, blood getting on Jeonghans chapped lips. “Don’t die, not until I’m tired of beating the living shit out of you.”

 

He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t fight Seungkwan. He couldn’t even move. Dokyeom had done the unthinkable.

He was sitting painfully, unable to move much, with Seungkwan screaming and crying next to him. Yes. Instead of fighting Seungkwan, his best friend, Dokyeom impaled himself with ice. 

“Seokmin! Seokmin, oh my God!” Seungkwan was sobbing, melting the ice quickly. It was almost all gone and Dokyeom could lie down in a mixture of blood and water.    
  
“Don’t die, please… Please…” Now he was lying in a mixture of blood, water and Seungkwan’s tears.  Seungkwan seemed so upset, as the tears were rolling down nonstop. It was obviously not just being upset that Dokyeom stabbed himself, but clearly a lot of suppressed sadness that was coming out. Being abandoned in China was clearly a huge scar on Seungkwan.

Once all the ice had melted from Dokyeom, all was left was an open wound. Unfortunately Seungkwan wasn’t a healer.

“Why did you do this…” Seungkwan sobbed, rubbing the tears away from his eyes.

“I can’t hurt you.” Dokyeom mumbled faintly, tired and breathing heavily. “Not anymore. I don’t want to hurt you anymore.”

Even more tears rolled down his cheek and now Dokyeom tried to wipe them away. The older smiled.

“Don’t cry.” His smile widened, “Seungkwan, were you mad at me?”   
  
“Huh?”   
  
“Were you mad at me when I left you? In China?”   
  
“No…” Seungkwan sniffled. “I wasn’t mad… Rather… I was sad. It felt like my heart shattered.”   
  
“Hah…” Dokyeom was turning more tired and more pale. A big warning sign. “I was so worried... About you.”   
  
Seungkwan sat silently next to Dokyeom, letting him speak about all his thoughts on the younger. Just letting the atmosphere and Seungkwan’s remaining moments with Dokyeom dominate.    
  
“You know…” After having rambled slowly for minutes, ignoring the noises that grew louder and louder. People were approaching. “You look really good in blond.”   
  
“Thank you.” Seungkwan felt the tears dry on his cheeks. Dokyeom took a deep breath, his heavy lids finally closing. 

“Dokyeom!” Joshua ran up, panting heavily with bruises growing and scars bleeding. He stopped and saw Seungkwan’s tears fall again.

 

“Dino… It’s okay now…” Jeonghan looked around, seeing hair stick out behind a parked car. Eventually, Dino stepped out with the suitcases in his hands, crying.

“What’s wrong, kiddo? Come here.” Jeonghan opened his arms, blood dripping from him. He smiled, knowing what he did was messed up. And he could admit he didn’t feel too good about it.

Dino walked closer, sobbing uncontrollably. He mumbled something that Jeonghan couldn’t hear, making the older raise his brow.

“Dino it’s okay. Coups won’t bother you now.” Jeonghan’s smile grew, trying his best to be calm and not scare Dino any further.

“I don’t wanna be used for experiments, Jeonghan.” Dino said a little louder, shaking. “Not anymore, please…”  
  
Jeonghan’s eyes widened. He remembered that Dino was born in an abuse household, not tested on. What was this?  
  
“What are you talking about, Channie?” Jeonghan knelt down and looked at Dino with concern. Dino sniffled, patting the tears away with the palm of his hand before explaining.

 

“He’ll be okay, don’t worry.” Joshua reassured Seungkwan, speaking softly despite the situation they were in. Joshua was on his knees, hands planted on Dokyeom’s chest as he tried to heal the wound on him.

“It’s okay…” Vernon mumbled, looking at Dokyeom from behind Seungkwan. He sighed, extremely tired. Vernon knelt down and put a hand on Seungkwan’s shoulder, patting it.    
  
“I’m almost done, why don’t you two go up to Jeonghan and-”

The three stopped up as they heard steps nearing them. Turning around, they turned to see Jeonghan. He was shaking, blood all over him. His hands were shaking and he dropped the gun he was holding.

“Faultbloods are used by the government as experiments… That’s why Coups wanted the mission to succeed a year ago…” Jeonghan mumbled, probably only himself that heard. “I just left him bleeding to death on the floor… What have I done…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot happened in this chapter. Are you okay? I'm not.
> 
> Halfway through writing this chapter (which is practically rushed, I apologize) I realized that next chapter is last.
> 
> It's been an adventure, but I'm not gonna be sentimental and talk about my feelings for this fic until next chapter. Please look forward to it. 
> 
> Also that jeongcheol was needed I had that planned for literally 6 months to have in this fic and Here It Is.


	21. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW cutting and hints of self harm
> 
> I didn't proof read, sorry for spelling errors.

It would be shocking to say the least if they weren’t silent at that moment. The gang were sitting around Coups’ lying body, staring at Joshua’s shaking hands. He was panting heavily, tired from using his powers so much. Too tired to even care about how ridiculous he looked too. But the others didn’t care about Joshua not keeping a nice facade on. They wanted Coups to be okay.

Seungkwan looked at Jeonghan carefully, holding onto Dokyeom tightly. He was afraid of what would happen next. Would he lose Coups? Dokyeom? While Dokyeom’s wound was healed, he hadn’t woken up from whatever unconsciousness he had fallen into. Vernon, who sat next to Jeonghan, seemed to be careful of his seatmate as well. While turning to look at Joshua’s hands to the dried blood on the floor, all the way up to Jeonghan’s shaking pupils, Seungkwan finally asked:   
  
“Why did you take the antidote?”

The silence broke. Jeonghan’s dark eyes looked over at Seungkwan and he tilted his head slightly, black hair falling on his face. Guilt and shock was written all over his blood drenched self and Seungkwan had a feeling he’d get the most honest answer now that Jeonghan carried this state of mind.

“You remember how my mom was a faultblood, right? She could transform herself into different people, different animals. When dad left, mom got sick and lost control of her powers.” Jeonghan started, eyes dazing. “Fish scales wolf ears, six fingers… She was stuck looking like a freakshow in the end. Her only option was to mutilate herself to fit with society.”  
  
Jeonghan then blinked and looked back down at Joshua’s working hands. Seungkwan stared wide eyed, his grip around Dokyeom becoming tighter. The silence returned. No one really wanted to carry on the conversation, rather not even think about what was just said. Therefore, to not press the subject further, silence was prefered.

“Ngh…” The gang looked at the lying man to see he had regained conscious. Coups groaned, eyebrows in a tight frown. Once he opened his eyes, he looked around to see several faces staring down at him. Turning his head slowly, and ignoring the mumbles around him, he looked to see Jeonghan’s pale face.

“You…” Coups got up too quickly to be healthy. He wore a threatening expression fueled with anger and got a hand ready to throw a fist. Before anything could be done though, Jeonghan held the gun up and aimed it at Coups. Coups stopped and stared. Actually, everyone stared.   
  
“Sorry… Reflex.” Jeonghan said, hesitatingly placing the gun back down. Joshua placed a hand on Coups’ shoulder and the eldest leaned back. He looked around, then down at himself to see all the blood.

“So,” He looked up again, eyeing Dino whom was holding onto the suitcase still. “We made peace?”  
  
“Temporarily.” Seungkwan mumbled, surprised over how quickly Coups got adjusted to the situation. Leader material indeed.  
  
“Where’s the others?” To the oldest’s dismay, he received shrugs in return. They _then_ remembered that a war had probably broken out a couple of floors down. So they wasted no time in running down the stairs. 

Upon arrival, they were greeted with the other boys still fighting. Seungkwan and Vernon, who carried the still unconscious Dokyeom, placed him down gently and prepared to stop the fights. But before that, Coups easily stopped Jun from clawing a knife into Mingyu’s face before them. Seungkwan then hurried and eased Hoshi and The8 from hurting Wonwoo any further. 

“What’s going on?” Hoshi asked, turning to look at the others by the stairs.   
  
“The suitcase.” Woozi mumbled and stepped closer.   
  
“No!” Vernon suddenly stood in front of Dino, protecting him. Coups clenched his fists.

“Just give it to us and we’ll be on our merry way, Chwe.” He hissed but Vernon stayed unswayed.    
  
“Can’t we solve this without a fight? Coups, please!”  Wonwoo coughed, blood running from his nose. 

“All we want is the antidote! Why do you keep it from us?” Hoshi seemed aggressively desperate. It was as if the fear of what could happen if nothing was done to their powers was too strong. 

“Because this isn’t what we want…” Everyone grew quiet as Dokyeom suddenly got up from where he was lying, standing shakily on his feet. Still a little dizzy, Dokyeom got some help keeping his balance by Joshua through leaning on him. “We shouldn’t fight each other for an antidote, we should fight the ones who put us in this situation in the first place!”   
  
“And how do we do that? Can you really see 13 people fighting the Korean government and succeeding?” Hoshi rolled his eyes and crossed his arms dramatically. 

“It’s not impossible… We’re not the only faultbloods in the country.” Dokyeom’s hope on the suggestion died slowly. But it seemed like hope was sparked in someone else.

“Doesn’t… Sound bad…” Coups mumbled to himself.    
  
“Cheol, what are you on?” Jun rose a brow.    
  
“If we gather as many faultbloods as we can we could do this... “   
  
“He’s insane.”  The8 sighed and rubbed his temples.

“No, listen.” Coups said. “If the government wants to silence us, why should we let them by taking the antidote?”    
  
Suddenly more ears were alert.   
  
“Do you mean… We’re trying to get some X-men effect out of it with mutant rights?” Hoshi asked, arms uncrossing slowly.

The gang eventually formed into a circle, slowly but surely, in the parking house. They were talking about this for what seemed like hours. Some agreed and some disagreed in the start but in the end they all seemed to gain a common goal again. The subject eventually changed to some sort of bonding session. Jun talked about an experience in China and the others continued to add other memories from the passing year, now that they had been separated for long enough. Laughs were shared, smiles were spread and the boys seemed to forget their past differences and put them behind. It was as if Seventeen were truly reunited again.

“So what’s the plan? Kicking the door down and going ‘hey government, we want human rights’?” Hoshi joked. The sun had started to rise now and the rays of the sun were peeking in through a giant window wall. The others laughed, the mood partially boosted due to the rising sun. 

“Sounds good to me.” Coups said, smiling widely. He held a clenched fist in front of him in the circle, hoping the others got the message. And they did. One by one the other boys held a fist out and they soon formed a mini circle.    
  
“After everything that’s passed, out differences and indifferences… After our agreements and fights. I think it’s safe to say… Seventeen, let’s work hard.” Coups said, looking around to see the others’ smiling faces. He stopped and stared at Jeonghan for a while, who just nodded in return. The gang shared a fellow cheer and separated from the circle.

 

 

It’s been a couple of months since that night and Seventeen were slowly patching things up. They had all moved back into the headquarters in the forest and tried to move on from everything. But it was hard considering the past events, being abandoned in China for a whole year left some scars.

Distrust was the worst poison, and the boys had to learn how to trust again. But how? Why wasn’t it as easy as it sounded? All they wanted to do was to pretend nothing had happened, but it was obviously in vain. What happened  _ split _ the group and caused them to fight to near death with one another. Pretending like nothing happened was but an ability they could wish for.

But to do their best in recovering, the boys spent a lot more time together. They’d sit together every night to eat dinner, watch movies or just talk. It was quit a gateway to rebond. During one of the nights of rebonding, when watching an old movie from the 90’s, the sun decided to set early and darkness took over. 

It was a cozy evening and half the members were snuggled up to each other, sharing some greasy pizza and throwing sarcastic comments at the TV. To anyone it looked like a perfect family just relaxing. But to someone who knew what went down a couple of months prior would find it humorous that Coups and Jeonghan both sat five feet apart from each other. The two still had some issues and were super awkward talking to each other. I guess that happens when you shoot someone to the brink of death. 

Among the boys watching the movie, some were starting to daze off to sleep. One was actually asleep and snoring softly. That one was Seungkwan. He was cuddled against Dokyeom, hand on the older’s chest and cheek pressed against his shoulder. Since the gang moved together again, Seungkwan had trouble sleeping and Dokyeom learned that the only way the younger boy could last the whole night without waking from a nightmare was if Dokyeom was close. Preferably super close. Dokyeom actually had a hard time breathing most of the time because of Seungkwan’s weight on top of him. Nontheless, it was cozy.   
  
Vernon, who had been staring at the two for minutes, suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder. Hoshi stood there, seemingly needing his attention.

“Come for a sec?” Hoshi asked, “Woozi needs you.”  
  
“Yeah? Okay…” Of all people, Vernon had it easiest to patch things up with the others. He could talk to all of them as usual, and therefore he seemed to be needed the most whenever any member needed help with something.  
  
Following Hoshi down to the undergrounds and through the eerie hallway, his head clouded with Dokyeom and Seungkwan, Vernon sighed. He almost wasn’t in the mood to help Woozi out, rather just hide in his room or something. 

“Oh, Vernon. There you are.” Woozi’s voice filled the room. The room that Vernon entered without noticing. In ‘Joshua’s lab’, Woozi sat with two bottles with transparent liquid in his hands. “I need you to try this new medicine. Joshua worked hard on it and I just tweaked it a bit. I think this should improve healing.”   
  
“Alrighty.” Vernon said, grabbing one of the bottles that Woozi handed to him. The guys had been working hard in preparing on the ‘Faultblood Rights Movement’ mission. FRM for short. They had gathered a couple of contacts that wanted to join and were slowly but surely building everything up. Woozi knew how bloody it would get in between protesting and protecting themselves that he had to assure a Joshua in liquid form would be present at all times. There weren’t enough healer faultbloods so something else was necessary to survive in the long run. 

Vernon took a sip of the drink and grimaced, feeling the sour taste fill his tastebuds. Other than that, he didn’t feel any different. Then again, no one had any idea how he was supposed to feel when his healing would improve. 

Woozi asked if he was okay and Vernon just nodded. They then proceeded to do a test run to see if his healing actually did improve. It was quite a grim process, considering how cutting the flesh open on one of your friends wasn’t a normal act. Staring down at the small cut and the blood running out from his body, Vernon couldn’t help but see the other cuts on his arm. The healed ones that were failed attempts. He sighed, noticing this was a failed attempt too. Woozi shared the disappointment.

“Damnit…” Woozi took the bottle from Vernon and went back to the table where he had other bottles and papers of different recipes. Sometimes he thought it would just be easier to have turned into a human. “Sorry about that by the way. Get Joshua to look at it later.”

Vernon just nodded. He didn’t care about the cut to be honest. He was used to them by now. He looked around the room, in awe of how the blue lights from the lamp could make the room look beautiful despite the things happening in there. It wasn’t anywhere you’d go on your first date at least. Vernon then noticed an empty suitcase lying on the floor, brow lifting in curiousity. If he wasn’t wrong, that was the suitcase that had mattered a lot just a couple of months ago. What happened to the contents within? Vernon turned to Woozi’s back and asked, “Hey Woozi… What did you do with the antidote?”

“The antidote?” Woozi mumbled, scribbling some notes onto a paper. He didn’t bother turning around to face Vernon as he spoke, “We’re keeping it. It’s hidden somewhere here.”   
  
He then turned around, the blue lights from the lamp illuminating his bleached hair from behind. “I know it might cause some trust issues between us, but we can’t throw something as valuable as that out. Don’t tell anyone what I told you.”   
  
If it wasn’t for Woozi’s deadly serious tone, his expression would be enough to scare him. Of course Vernon would  _ never _ go against Woozi’s word. Not when the older was so frightening. 

“Of course… It stays between us, man.” Vernon swallowed, looking at Woozi with pure honesty. Woozi nodded and turned back around, continuing his work. Vernon decided it would be a good time to leave Woozi be and turned his heel to walk back up to the others.

But he was to regret that. Upon arrival to the living room, the TV was turned off and most of the former occupants of the couch had left. Only two remained, and those two were Seungkwan and Dokyeom. The two were asleep on the couch, soundless and peaceful looking. Vernon would normally tease them and take a picture, but now he felt like he lost all energy to do so. Why was he so jealous of those two?   
  
Deciding not to stay there any longer Vernon rushed up the stairs and to his room, choosing to forget what he saw.

 

 

“Hurry Chwe, we don’t got all day.” Hoshi said, rushing past the kitchen and out the door with numerous things in his arms. Vernon sighed and looked down at the healing scar, listening to Hoshi’s words. The scars healed a lot quicker now. The ‘Joshua in liquid form’ was finally working and appeared to be long lasting, as Vernon last tried it the night before and still worked the morning after. They wanted to call it ‘health potion’ but it was too geeky and they had to settle for ‘sidel’. What did sidel mean? No one knew, but it sounded cute in Joshua’s opinion.

Vernon turned away from the kitchen sink and glanced over at the open door that was waiting for him. Today was a big day for Seventeen, It was the day they’d officially kick off the FRM mission. They had gotten in contact with other faultbloods and were slowly building some sort of army. Today they’d meet these faultbloods.

“Are you coming?” Vernon realized he had been deep in thought again as the voice of Seungkwan shook him back to reality. Vernon blinked and saw Seungkwan looking back at him with crossed arms, leaning against the door frame.    
  
“Yeah. The car’s ready?” Vernon asked, mainly to spark a conversation. He felt some happiness inside him knowing he had this moment with Seungkwan alone.

“It has been for a while. We’re waiting for you and the leaders.” Seungkwan smiled. “One of the cars are filled already so we’ll be stuck with them. Come on.”   
  
As long as Dokyeom wasn’t there, it was okay. Wait, what was Vernon even thinking?    
  
“Okay… Let’s go?” Vernon grabbed his backpack that sat on the kitchen island and swung it around his shoulder, trying to run away from his dreadful thoughts.    
  
“Let’s go.” Seungkwan’s smile widened. He turned around and walked out the door, Vernon following suit.    
  
They got in a car that was smaller than the van, Jeonghan sitting behind the steering wheel. Fear shot up in Vernon’s system as he remembered the last time Jeonghan drove a car. But he had to trust the older would do a good job now that Woozi, Hoshi and Coups would be breathing down his neck. 

It didn’t take long for the three leaders to come and get in the car. Jeonghan made a witty comment at their late arrival and Woozi told him to shut up. Vernon felt his throat go dry. He turned to look at the van that started driving off and felt the car he was in move. Jeonghan seemed to just want to follow the other car, despite Coups mentioning he could just drive to the address without following the others. Fatigue was reaching Vernon as he was preparing for the long car drive. He dug his hand into his pocket and got his phone out, hoping to find something to distract him from the other occupants in the car.

“It’s gonna be exciting, isn’t it?” Seungkwan asked as they drove through the thick woods. “Meeting other faultbloods…”   
  
Vernon could feel Seungkwan wanting to say more, but the older must’ve stopped from saying something that might trigger the others. The youngest thought it would be easier to not make an actual tension build up in the car and decided to nod. 

“You’re right.” He put his phone back into his pocket. Looking out the window and at the tall trees in the forest, he sighed. “It’ll be quite an adventure.”

 

He felt Seungkwan’s hand hold his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go. Wow.
> 
> Firstly I'd like to say, thank you for reading! One of the key motivations for me has been the comments, the kudos etc etc and I can't begin to describe how happy the support has made me. I really owe you one!
> 
> I apologize if the ending seems rushed or something seems unclear. I do want to mention that recently I've been considering writing a follow-up for TFIOB where we see what happens afterwards. It's obvious we left with some unfinished business but that depends on your opinions. Should I make some TFIOB 2?
> 
> I really expected my end note to be longer in this one but... Nah. Again, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this one. I wanted to end with something that really matters to me, Seventeens teamwork. Despite Seventeen in this fic not being as pure and wholesome as the real Seventeen, I wanted to include teamwork nonetheless.
> 
>  
> 
> Before I go, I'm gonna leave this here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-ZzjmtoNcg


End file.
